The Problems of Gor – Part 1
by Pixeleen Mistral on 27/11/06 at 6:06 pm
Philosophy, Society, Conditioning
[editors note: Our Gorean-themed week continues with an abridged version of a notecard written by Artemis Fate -- contact Artemis for a complete copy of the 'Problems of Gor'.]
by Artemis Fate
Gor is an alternate-world detailed in John Norman’s “Chronicles of Gor”, a twenty-six novel series that combines philosophy and erotica with science-fiction. It is a highly detailed setting in terms of wildlife and customs, borrowing from various ancient cultures such as the Greek, Native American and Viking cultures. Advanced technology is present, but the life of the humans on the planet remain otherwise primitive to the modern day. Followers of the philosophies and lifestyle outlined in the books are called Goreans.
Gor has been a presence online for quite some time, but their exposure has been limited to places such as Usenet and private IRC channels. However, the Gorean culture has shifted towards more open communities. Many people were not aware of Gor until joining visual chat rooms such as the Palace, Active Worlds, and Second Life.
This has not been met without problems. It has been widely believed that Active Worlds was ‘taken over’ by Goreans. This came to pass as many Goreans were placed in charge of the community as ‘Peacekeepers’, the game masters of Active Worlds. Many reports of unfair treatment, attacks on criticism and strong promotion of Gor in the beginner areas have been made.
When it comes to Second Life, Gor first became widely known when the sim Port Kar went public in the spring of 2005. However, the Gorean community have been around for quite some time along the mainland and in private islands. There are now more than a hundred public Gorean locations in Second Life.
Gor Philosophy
“Strong men simply need women. This will never be understood by weak men. A strong man needs a woman at his feet, who is truly his. Anything else is less than his fulfillment. When a man has once eaten the meat of the gods he will never again chew on the straw of fools.”
– Explorers of Gor, page 12
Gorean philosophy is split between what is detailed in the books and the more common standards of the community. The main difference lies in that the books are not strictly sexual. The Master/Slave relationship is not the primary focus as most of the detail is given to the society of Gor at large.
Beyond defining the Master/Slave relationship, the books have made commentary on a somewhat diverse range of topics. These topics have included genetic superiority, the nature of citizenship and freedom and war, among other things. An anonymous author commented on that the stances taken on these kind of subjects as being remarkably similar to those of Hitler’s in Mein Kampf. As a result, some have classified Gorean philosophy as a form of nazism.
This is a key contrast as the Gorean community has placed its focus on the Master/Slave relationship as its main purpose and sometimes its only purpose.
Therefore we get into the quote above as a main aspect of Gorean community philosophy: Man wishes to dominate a woman and a woman wants to be dominated by a man. If a woman does not, she is weak. All women are inferior to men and can only be happy being owned by a man.
Gor Society
Generally, Gorean society in SL is made up as a series of strict rules. Some have involved themselves because these rules seem similar to heavy roleplay. To many roleplayers in Second Life, this is the only place to roleplay because few other communities exist for it.
Not only are the rules strict, but the punishments are severe. Failure to follow the rules of their society may result in being banned from the sim to having your character executed. Execution will also result in a banning from the sim..
In addition to rules and punishment, the Goreans run a slave market. The prices of slaves depend on how well ‘trained’ the slave is. Typically this can range from L$2000 to L$20,000, which is roughly $8 to $80 USD. Of course, there are cases where a slave may go for a higher price.
A man who is displeased by his slave will punish her her severely. This may take the form of harsh beatings or by outright killing her. Gorean executions can even take on the form of sexual torture in more extreme cases. A slave who tries to run away is pursued and often times eaten by a monster used for hunting.
Conditioning
As to be expected, the relationship dependency is skewed. Men are encouraged to treat their slaves like objects and women encouraged to give everything they have to men. This leads to problems when a Master no longer feels that his slave is of any use. A Master will simply sell the girl to someone else and get the money, he developed no huge relationship to the girl as much as you have a relationship with your car.
The girl on the other hand, is taught to be dependent and totally in love with her Master. To be sold to another so is a form of rejection. This sort of sting can be more mild, with the girl a little depressed at each time she’s traded off. However, some have gone into a full breakdown and have inflicted pain on themselves or others. While not every slave is sold without consent, those that have been will usually have a story that falls between these reactions.
This sort of dependency is only the surface of what conditioning Gorean slaves can be put through. To most starting out in Gor, it’s an innocent fantasy world of roleplay. Many would not even consider there being any possible mind conditioning or thought reform occurring. This is something that can and will be exploited.
Doublethink and Repetition
“Freedom permits a woman to live without a man. Slavery makes a woman need a mans touch… Slavery, of course, is the surest path by means of which a woman can discover her femininity. The paradox of the collar is the freedom which a woman experiences in at last finding herself, and becoming herself.”
– Magicians of Gor, page 160
“The great masses of people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one. Especially if it is repeated again and again.”
– Adolf Hitler
George Orwell’s defined the term ‘doublethink’ in his novel 1984. Doublethink is the power of accepting two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously. A popular doublethink slogan in his book is “Freedom is slavery, war is peace”.
For some slave girls in Gor communities, John Norman’s books are mandatory readings. Each book has the repeated theme that women are naturally slaves to men. The moral of every story is that neither men nor women can be happy unless they follow this nature. This is the big lie that is repeated again and again.
They state that “Slavery is freedom”. This is the direct flip of Orwell’s quote “Freedom is slavery”. As stated above, this is repeated throughout the books and written in as persuasive and romantic of a matter as possible. The intended goal of this mandatory reading is to drill home this sort of doublethink until you have a person honestly believing that “slavery is freedom”. This is an exceptionally effective form of control.
Seven Tactics of ‘Coercive Persuasion’
For a more professional look at this sort of conditioning, Dr. Margaret Singer has written an excellent piece on ‘coercive persuasion’. For the sake of simplicity, it’s best if the paper is summarized here. ‘Coercive persuasion’ is a method of slowly manipulating the way a person thinks and feels. It doesn’t happen over night and all seven tactics do not need to be used. But, in time, a person exposed to these tactics can be influenced and conditioned.
The seven tactics she’s outlined can be summarized as:
1. ‘Softening Up’ – First a victim is prepared by focusing them on REPEATED activities, ideas or senses. This is to make the person more receptive to further suggestion.
2. ‘Social support’ – By using rewards and punishments, the victim is separated from their friends and family who are not part of the group. Being part of the group is rewarded, spending time outside of it is punished. Making a person reliant upon the group for money and other needs helps this immensely.
3. ‘Censorship’ – Rules are put in place where certain thoughts are not allowed to be expressed. What can be said to an outsider from the group is also controlled, as is communication in general. Usually a group will come up with its own ‘language’ for describing things.
4. ‘Peer pressure’ – The group makes a constant, firm effort to convince a person to rethink their own beliefs and their past life. The victim is made to believe their past way of life is wrong and that they must fit into the group.
5. ‘Low self-esteem’ – The group seeks ways of breaking a person’s self-confidence and faith in their own judgement. The idea is to make a person not wish to act on their own and instead be guided by the group.
6. ‘Non-violent punishment’ – Anything from intense humiliation to loss of privilege, social isolation, loss of status, intense guilt, anxiety, manipulation and other techniques. This is all done to make the person afraid of disobeying.
7. ‘Threats’ – A victim is lead to believe that failing to fit into the group will mean terrible things. Not just punishment mentioned in tactic six, but things such as mental illness, drug habits, being poor and homeless, a miserable love life and general unhappiness.
– TO BE CONTINUED –
Chaz Maz
Mar 12th, 2009
Second Life: Land of the WEAK home of the BROKEN
First of all, I have been there, have done that. Had clubs, owned land, made friends, money, and fell in love. Second life on the surface, especially for the newbie and Entrepreneur/artist is a fun and cool place to make some friends, and make some money. It is looked at as a supercharged chat room, a video game. But the nature of its name is where the insidiousness is. As much of a second life (SL) as it might be, in order to operate you still have to use your Real Life (RL) abilities. You do not follow a different thought and emotional pattern when in SL. You can only use what you know in RL. But kidding yourself is one of the appeals of SL. You eventually get lost in it.
At first it is new and exciting. Like a new video game. Learning the functions that move your avatar around, visiting places and socializing with the natives. You are perfect, and you can fly. No sickness, no need for money (well not as much) and people don’t have bad breath and, as a “normal”, “intelligent” person, it is an interesting place to explore and learn. But it eventually becomes one of three things. 1. Boring, like a video game you have played over and over. 2. An environment to explore your creative ability to design and sell things. Or, 3 it consumes your psyche.
The first two are what they are; the third is the meat and potatoes of SL. This is the one that is more consistent. Do you really think the folks at Linden Labs are spending their free time on SL.? No, they are spending the money they are making in RL (SL is a business so it is RL for them) on RL things.
There comes a saturation point where you walk away or get sucked in. I will say this for the last time and it does not apply to you newbie’s, or the smart ones that are making money off the lonely. It is a place to hide from reality. It is a place where weak, lost souls go to escape from the depth and breadth of life. I will allow some latitude for you shut-ins. Some people have nothing else but the four walls of the room they are in. SL can provide a form of “human” entertainment that they otherwise would not be able to get. But, that just causes the shut-in to let go of their emotional self being even greater. This is a hard pill to swallow, no one wants to take a good look at them selves and most do not. But the covert nature of SL allows you to cut loose. Sort of the absolute power corrupts absolutely theory. People that stay too long get lost in it. And yes, justifying all the way, that it is just a game. For the predator, and a predator is weak by nature, it is a place to be free of thought and persecution. To dominate the weak that makes SL their home. And, it is a place for the weak to not be judged, a place that they can feel and accept that who they are is ok, even if it is with the few. Some people can handle the trials and tribulations of life, some can’t and they end up in SL. You start to see a symbiotic circle of relationships in SL. For the people designing objects to sell, they may not interact totally and directly with the person/s and, their sales may come from across the board. The newbie that is playing the “game” to the obsessed, but, the obsessed is a long term customer. Theses business individuals usually get in, add new product, convert their lindens to dollars or pounds and get out.
The tragedy is the weak and broken. Don’t roll your eyes, In the Real World we are always conned with flashy marketing to get us to buy something or believe something in order to buy a product. Magic cream or potion. Don’t kid yourself; Second Life is about making money. Making money off of what? Our loneliness and our lack of self worth in the real world. HELLO, McFly!! It is called Second Life.
It might be simple, you build a club, people come and visit or create a group, and you solicit for members. People get together and boom, you feel wanted and needed. Building your dream home in the clouds and littering your lawn with cool things like jets and swimming pools. That can make you popular. Walking in a park with your perfect Avatar girlfriend/boyfriend, no RL issues so it is a perfect relationship. That leads to good puppet sex. Mmmm nice. All this is accomplished by tugging on your weakness, your emotional frailty. Either you are not getting it in RL or are too afraid to face the truth of how to exist in RL. You can’t handle the truth and if you are a long term SL puppet, you just can’t handle life, Real Life. Don’t get me wrong, we all like to escape from time to time.
In some places it is much darker, like I said before, predators hunting the weak. The Gorean Master and the slaves that he takes control of. This one is unusual, in that the Master has total control over the slave. The “slave” giving not only total control of their Avatar, and who can communicate to them, but also, control as to when they will or will not talk to what they can wear. Believe me this does carry over to real life. Imagine the fun of kneeling next to your Avatar Master and saying nothing. Second life being nothing more then a place to be told what to do, serving fake food and ale. You want to call it guided, or taught? Hey, what ever floats your boat? I know just a video game, right? This setup just allows the predator to get in that persons head and develop a false sense of security. Tell that to your husband, wife, girlfriend, or boyfriend. Why you are glued to the PC instead of enjoying life, REAL LIFE. And, couples also get on there too, as couples, this is a nutty one. Worked hard all week, beautiful weekend, and, you both are on a computer, every free moment, building and designing that special home, having that child you never could have. (Yes, people do play the part of the child.) I find it unhealthy when instead of developing a better real life and real relationship in RL. You take that precious time and waste it. Yes, ok… You are free to do what you want. But there are plenty of damaged people on SL. And your fantasy could be causing them to loose sense of reality, along with your lost sense of reality. Their marriages, get funky, destroyed, their children get neglected. And you get a ridiculous God complex that makes you anti social in the Real World, which just plummets yourself deeper in to SL. Cha Ching! Sweet business you got Linden People.
You have the 50+ couple that spends every “free” moment in SL being the King and Queen. Oh, and so good to their obedient subjects. At their beckons call, at their total command. Or, the sexual perverts. Ok, my opinion….. That can now live out the fantasy of doing it with a farm animal. Or, kneeling down and being the public toilet. Sex is rampant in SL. The anonymous nature of your avatar is something too. You really do not know if the man is a woman or the woman is a man, plenty of men that are living out their desire to be a Transsexual, or a woman. Plenty of women that want to love another woman, so she hides in the body of a man. I guess what you don’t know won’t hurt you. Hey, no one is getting hurt, no aids. Nicey nice. The soul is willing but the flesh is weak. So, the wall that SL provides, allows for an easier transition to experiment. Sad part is as your getting deeper and deeper; you are getting more lost in fantasy then reality and they start to blend. Actually, you probably were lost between the two to begin with. Now you go out into the real world. Take a break; meet one of your SL friends. Break the rule, cross that line; remember SL and RL are supposed to be two different places. People meet up, some get married, the rare few. But mostly it is a letdown, disappointment, and harm to others. It is a dirty little secret. Who wants to tell people that you got into that trouble because you decided to meet your “make believe” friend?
Lips stay sealed, people get hurt. And in the end, the only place they feel right, the only place that people understand is right back on Second Life. CHA CHING!
Jupiter
Mar 15th, 2009
It is a fact that these men who participate in Gorean philosophy are absolute cowards in reality. I know this as I unfortunately met one, who couldn’t even admit his little secret for a long time. He made a small mistake of trying to play little mind games with me. Any form of confrontation from a woman (even just a minor question) makes them so uncomfortable they literally high tail it. One thing they need to realise is that they may find a woman who kneels to them, but you can bet that she is a sitting time bomb. Whatever has happened in her past to reduce her to a mans ’slave’ will erupt in a very ugly manner at a later stage. These types of women are what can turn into Aileen Wuornos in the end. The whole Gorean lifestyle is purely for Misogynists against Feminists, both equally unbalanced and fanatical as the other. Both as distasteful to a balanced emotionally healthy individual. Would the Goreans like to see their Mothers, Daughters or Grandmothers treated in this manner? Healthy men would shudder at the thought. It is remarkable how many of these Gorean men have been through an ugly divorce – they should try and deal with it instead of jumping into a hate fuelled philosophy. I would think to be so full of hate and vengence doesn’t actually make for a very happy existence.
dragon
Mar 25th, 2009
Classic case of closet gays pissed off with women for not turning them on. Makes them feel better to treat them like animals and get the ‘well done old chap’ from the other retard masters. Come out the closet chaps, you might like yourself a bit more then.
boudewijn
Apr 5th, 2009
I readed the article and some of the reactions on it.
the smile and the frowning where fighting on my face i must admit , of course the smile won the fight
I am a gorean role player.
With some of the reactions in the back of my head i have to use capitols by the words role player i gues.
What wil say when i am in a gorean role play sim i try to act as a gorean how i see it.
Outside a gorean role play sim i am just a ordanairy guy who talks silly about cars sport and women as every man does.
In my eyes gor is not a live style .
When i readed the article about the banning problem i could not hold back a smile.
People get banned for griefing.
Wich means doing something else then what is in the borders of the role play, and of course loonetics who try to let the sim crash.
When a person is executed it is a role play execute wich means you are death for 24 hours or a litle longer depending on the rules who are written for that sim.
After that time the person can start again with his character.
As my character plays a slaver , i readed with interest the part about buying a slave.
It is treu that in some cases real lindens get payed for a kajira (( gorean slave girl))
Of course i cant speak for all gorean sims , so i give what i know from my own city (thor) and the citys i know , what are a lot.
this have a few reasons.
it are the city girls where people pay for ((city girls are slaves that belongs to the city).
a man want to own his own kajira and thus he goes to the kennel of the city to buy one.
The city charges him a amouth of money.
Why?
A city puted time in learning the woman who plays the character of a kajira .
The role of a kajira isnt a simple one and it takes a lot of time to learn it in a good way ((wich count for every role man or woman)).
And of course every city would have a lot of people who roleplay in the city.
when a strange man buy a kajira and leave the other day to a other city ((wich he can as the kajira belongs to him)the city will run empty.
The lindens who are payed are going to the tier of the sim , as all have the profits of it.
But the most of the kajirae are not buyed with real lindens the man and the woman often agree in im that they like eachother and play their role togheter.
i spended to much time on writing i gues grinnss.
Boudewijn Fredriksson ((contact me inworld -second life- when needed
Jenni
Jul 8th, 2009
Truthfully, I find the anti-Gor faction a bit overly hostile. I’m not into Gor, though I have read a few of the books. Didn’t like them.
Why do people feel the need to bash different lifestyles or hobbies? What people do online is entirely their own business. “Sucking in newbies”? Puh-leeze. Anyone stupid enough to get suckered into something they really don’t want deserves all they get. RL and SL alike. If they express the wish to get out and cannot (for whatever reason) then and ONLY THEN is it time to intervene.
Quite simple actually: As long as Gor-players leave others alone it’s between consenting adults (as far as that can be verified). The same as with everything in life. It’s with consent of all parties involved, it’s A-Ok. Everyone who feels the need to attack others is merely spreading hate. And as such… is in my book more dangerous than anything else on this planet.
JerStone
Jul 24th, 2009
I love liberals, who dominate the second life culture.
They look the other way when men marry men, where older man try to solicit young boys into sexual stuff, they shrug there shoulders when two guys marry one 16 girl saying “well each their own”
But when a group of consenting adults get together on a video game and role play out a culture and fantasy.. “it’s a sick cult that treats women like dogs ..” All of a sudden there is a right and wrong.
Never mind the fact is Gorean culter on sl is mostly female. Never mind is a female fantasy that is played on. Never mind it’s a “video game”
LOL they even quote Hilter (as if everything hilter ever said was evil—talk about playing on stereotypes) to smear it, smear what they don’t even understand.
Gor is like anything else, its what the people doing it want it to be. It’s a free for all role play. That some people enjoy.
I wont get into the philosophy and why, cause people that don’t get it wont understand and I wont waste my time.
Libra
Jan 17th, 2010
The problem isn’t the Gorean roleplay. The problem is the individual people that play the role play and how they play it. There are many types of Master/slave relationships wether it be Gorean, Vampire, BDSM, etc. All fantasy roleplay that has been intertwined with real life. Unfortunately mentalism is a huge part of human nature. Some people are just more creative with expressing it but we all are guilty of it in one form or another wether it be for a positive influence or a negative influence. My advice to anyone thinking about the roleplay or just advice in general is for the submissive; be smart, follow your insticts, if something doesn’t feel right then it probably isn’t. For the domminants, remember there is a real person behind the computer and every action you make will have some form of an affect on the person’s psyche and the outcome may not be how you would most likely predict. You possess a dangerous power and can cause major distress in somone’s life but it will hurt you even more in the end. Guilt and denial can fuck you up for life.