For years they sat alone and divided and ostracized from society. For years they wimpered in silence and cashed in on their profane knowledge. For years they waited until the Internet allowed them to unite and make the world a better place.
Yeah, right.
Geeks have arisen to replace the cliques they thought abhorred them with the disdain for other social groups that pissed them off to begin with. I was once proud to be a geek, a computer nerd, a bookworm, and a quirky creative type. I’m not sure where I stand anymore.
I’ve been reading again. It gets me into trouble, I know, but I’ll continue until after I’ve switched mediums to Braille and my hands fall off. Anyway, I’ve been reading Slashdot, News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters on a regular basis and I’ve begun to feel a disconnect from the geeks that are and the geeks that were.
It seems that today’s geeks have loud voices regarding issues of high school rejection, intellectual property, and so on. Good for them. These are important issues, issues that need to be defended or at least argued by smart folk until we get them right. This isn’t what bothers me.
One thing that gets me is the profound grouping of the jocks, the preps, the geeks[1], the rednecks, the dopers, the choir-girls, the band fags, etc, that seem to emanate from this bastion of geekdom. Slashdot seems to be at the forefront of pigeonholing everyone. I hardly know anyone was just one of these. The seeming lack of cross-pollenation that permeates this Brave New Geek World horrifies me.
Another thing that disconcerts me is a repetitive wave of articles with the tone that “they’re going to get theirs someday”. Who’s going to get theirs? The preps? The jocks? My high school football team’s senior squad featured a National Merit Finalist, a Semi-Finalist, and a Commended scholar. Definitely not typical, but a fair share of book-types play sports too. (It’s good for you.)
I think the key problem resides in the fact that geeks have found their voice but they haven’t realized the truth yet: Everyone is a geek.
I meet people on a regular basis (which I suppose is odd for a self-proclaimed geek), and, in the course of casual conversation, the topic of who they felt they were in high school usually comes up. Eight of ten say, “Oh, I was a total geek in high school.”[2]
I’m not saying that the past tense of “I was” isn’t some rejection of high school geek-dom, but it is more a growing out of teenage awkwardness. The deal is that everyone felt that alienated adolescent dorkiness[3], and that geeks of today should deal with it like the geeks of yesteryear.
They should cower in the corner and try to avoid getting beat up.
Toughen up, you little bastards.
[1] I will note that in high school in geek-only quarters there was definitely a geek caste system going on. I was truly disappointed not to be the head of it.
[2] The other two declare how stoned or drunk they were throughout.
[3] Except the jocks, the preps, the potheads, the goat-ropers, the Bible-thumpers, and the Hootahs.[4]
[4] The Hootahs were an ultra-refined[5] group of Pryor High girls circa 1989-90.
[5] Where ultra is synonymous with not.
