This is a spin-off from something I just wrote on the thread about people writing Jedi as their religion on the UK census form. Someone stated that they did it to get recognition as a part of the geek community. And I thought that raised an interesting question:
If you had to use one word to describe yourself and the community of people you most belong to, what would it be?
What I mean by this is: I do many things in life and could describe myself in many ways. I write, I design software, I'm a father, I'm an atheist, I'm a reader, I'm a gamer, ... All of these in some way define a community. But if I had to choose one word to describe the community of people I *most* identify with, I think I'd probably choose 'geek', (actually, I'd rather choose 'scientist', but only in the sense of worldview, not profession).
I think this is important because politicians always bandy phrases around like 'the black community', 'the gay community' and so on, but I am very skeptical about them: there's a huge difference between being gay and being 'part of the gay community'. It's about how much these labels define you as a person. For some gay people, their gayness is the most important, defining thing in their life; for others, probably most, it's just a part of them in the same way that heterosexuality is for me.
So go on - what community do you most belong to?
Oh, okay - you can choose more than one if you absolutely must...
If you had to use one word to describe yourself and the community of people you most belong to, what would it be?
What I mean by this is: I do many things in life and could describe myself in many ways. I write, I design software, I'm a father, I'm an atheist, I'm a reader, I'm a gamer, ... All of these in some way define a community. But if I had to choose one word to describe the community of people I *most* identify with, I think I'd probably choose 'geek', (actually, I'd rather choose 'scientist', but only in the sense of worldview, not profession).
I think this is important because politicians always bandy phrases around like 'the black community', 'the gay community' and so on, but I am very skeptical about them: there's a huge difference between being gay and being 'part of the gay community'. It's about how much these labels define you as a person. For some gay people, their gayness is the most important, defining thing in their life; for others, probably most, it's just a part of them in the same way that heterosexuality is for me.
So go on - what community do you most belong to?
Oh, okay - you can choose more than one if you absolutely must...
