Reality Gor

I was in a channel today and someone mentioned a recent decision to move IRC Gor to "Old Gor" which meant that uncollared slaves were not protected.  I gathered that this meant that any slave without a collar could be captured.

I was disappointed again.  This wasn't the Gor that I remembered from times past.  I rambled on a bit about the difference, and then when people started talking about IRC killing, I left.

All these things that people are talking about aren't what I remember.  I love Gor.  At least, I love the Gor I remember.  Back then, it was REAL.

When I first found Gor, it was in a channel with men and women who were seeking to apply the principles of the Gorean Philosophy in their lives (i.e. offline).  These men and women sought to associate with one another, and the forum they chose to use was a channel on IRC.  Back then it was DALNet.  These men put together a place where they could be themselves in more or less of a Gorean setting, where the vocabulary and the culture was common enough that they could enjoy interacting with each other and with the women in a predictable way.

It was fun!  To be among these men, to have these women at my feet, to enjoy the companionship of strong men, and the lust of willing women through the written word.  But more than fun, it was REAL.

No, I wasn't deluded into thinking that a woman was really at my feet serving me, nor was there actual leather contacting her when I whipped her in discipline.  It wasn't real that way.  It was real in that the men and women were the same online and off.

When I first discovered Gor, a man was expected to be a man, whether online or off.  He was expected to be strong, to understand his nature as a Free Person, and his value in relation to other free men and to women and to slaves.  He was expected to be mature, self-assured, and confident.  He was expected to not feel threatened when someone questioned him, because he was confident in his place.  There was no difference between online and offline expectations; a man was expected to be a man, to be the same man, online and off.  If I met a man offline, I would expect to be familiar with his habits and manner and expectations, because I experienced him online.  If a man didn't meet these expectations, he wasn't welcome among the group.  Back then, a lot of people were kicked out of the group, temporarily and permanently.

At that time, a slave would expect to kneel in my presence and subject herself to my whim were she ever to meet me offline, just like online.  She was a slave in her heart.  Even though most interaction for a slave was online, her lust was real.  Her fear was real.  Her commitment was real.  She had a very real understanding that if she wasn't pleasing, she could experience some very unpleasant consequences, and that she just might experience them anyway.  She understood that when she took a collar, she was giving her soul to another person to do with as he pleased.  She did it willingly, because she felt that her soul would be better off in his hands than in her own.  And if she didn't feel that, she didn't take the collar.

Back then, the men in the channel I loved swore fealty to a home stone.  A real home stone.  A rock, one that they found which they felt was worthy of the honor.  They literally pledged their honor and their lives to the protection of the home stone and their brothers.  And they meant it.  Offline.  For REAL.

The IRC Gor I experience now is, more often than not, a place for people to come to pretend to be different than who they are.  To play at being men.  To play at being slaves.  To put on the facade of bravado and machisimo, to imagine what it would be like to be a warrior or an assassin, to get their jollies with an available woman, who is often there just to get her jollies herself.  To imagine and play at what it would be like to serve a strong man, a warrior, to feel his lust for her.

What do these people do?  When they turn off the computer, do they go outside and see themselves as Gorean?  Do they engage other men and women as a Gorean?  Is the man strong, does he seek to be more strong?  Does he take accountability for his actions and for his domain?  Does the woman surrender, does she seek to deepen that surrender?  Does she seek to honor and please the men in her life, or does she expect them to treat her as an equal?

A Gorean man is noble.  However close to the earth or salty he is, whether he is honorable or not, whether he owns a slave or not, whether he carries a weapon or not.  He carries himself as a man of value.  Of value to his home, to his men, to his world.  Look at the men in the Silver Mines of Tharna.  As slaves they were petty, selfish animals with no vision of their nobility, of their incredible nature.  But when one called to that manhood within them, they left the pettiness behind and claimed their strength to break free from the bonds placed by the women on them, despite incredible barriers.  They were filthy and in rags before and after.  But when they became noble, they became men.  Despite the rags, despite the chains, despite the taskmasters.  They claimed their right.  And they earned it.  They were free because they were men.

A Gorean man doesn't need to pretend to be something else to impress others or attract attention.  It is adventure enough to be Gorean, to take on the world and fight to conquer first one's own domain, to fend off others, possibly even to build and grow one's domain.  There is more than enough adventure to go around.

What are you?  Are you a man or a slave?  Not online, not in chat rooms, not on IRC.  But in your heart?

It is a man's nature to be noble.  Any man can realize that nature.  The bar is high.  You must answer for yourself.  ARE you a Man of Gor?