The Rhetoric of Second Life and the Politics of Globalization

Zach Weiner

Orientation
I find myself lost in a tropical paradise. I follow a set of stepping stones down a hill until I am
face to face with life-size posters two people, a man and a woman, Adam and Eve, perhaps? I
am told I can be anyone or anything I want to be, and I'm given a palette of clothing and body
parts to choose from – I can adjust my height, weight, nose size, skin color, and gender all with
the push of a button. I pick a pretty standard “Boy Next Door” look, and a build and skin color
with which I will blend right in to the crowd. At my next stop I learn how to talk to a parakeet.
I take an eye test, play with a beach ball, and fly away. I am ready for my second life. Who will
I become?

My name is Zach Warwillow, and I am an avatar in the virtual world called Second Life. Second
Life is a free online virtual world in which users create avatars (See fig. 1) – digital
representations of themselves – via which they can interact with others, explore, buy, sell, or
create items, work and make money, have babies, and build this full-scale second world.
Everything in-world, from the objects to the buildings to the artwork, is created by the users, but
what happens when you give someone – when you give everyone – freedom from the physical
constraints of the real world? What happens when you give them a chance to start over? To
become anyone they desire? And then, what does this reveal about our own culture? Second
Life is often seen as a way of prototyping a Real World building, scenario, or life without the
risks and costs of trying it out in real life. As a true virtual world, Second Life has also become
the platform for an abundance of artwork including the unique art of avatar construction,

Fig. 1: Avatar creation in Second Life

providing an intriguing avenue by which to examine this extraordinary culture.

Yet Second Life has more to tell us than simply what people would do without restrictions.
Because Second Life is a world without barriers – where people from all over the world can
interact as equals (there are even built in translators) – it marks the pinnacle of a tremendous
progression of technology from telephone to airplane to internet with the goal of bringing the
world together. It is as close as we have come to the dream of globalization, the dream that
lifting the barriers between cultures will unite them all and leave an extraordinary amalgam of
human experiences – a true melting pot. Second Life has gained an astounding and diverse
collection of uses, from education to politics to computer science research to social networking,
and has been adopted by millions from all over the globe, 65% being outside of the U.S.
(Rosedale 2008).

In order to create a comprehensive and holistic picture of the key issues of Second Life, I borrow
from a number of different disciplines. I begin with a first-hand observation of the art of avatar
creation in Second Life and supplement my findings with in-world stories told through blogs and
newspapers as well as with technical studies concerning the behavior and motivations of Second
Life users. Some of the resulting ideas are predictable and others are novel, but when interpreted
from within the context of twenty-first century globalization, the central problems of Second Life
take on new form, and exciting insights can be discovered that have profound and far-reaching
implications for the politics and culture of our time.

The Art of the Avatar

I float around the third floor of the Museum of Second Life Photography, a gallery of portraits of
Second Life avatars. I cannot help but stop and stare at a woman so beautiful she could have
been a barbie with such perfect – and unrealistic – proportions. Her pale skin glows and her
purple robe draped casually over her, rippling in the wind. I move on to the fourth floor where I
see a portrait entitled “Thoughts of You” (fig. 2). It depicts a blonde, tan girl sitting in the reeds
and staring off. She is so thin that her midsection is hidden behind her legs. Her makeup is
pronounced, done expertly, and there is a beauty mark above the left side of her upper lip – a
human touch.

There are the attempts at individuality that one would expect from a photography gallery – a
nude white woman standing in a dark forest wrapped in a snake, an African-American woman
with golden hair and sparkling jewelry framed in the center, and a woman standing in front of the
moon with a short skirt and half a shirt.

At first, this art gallery would seem to reveal nothing special – the artwork is like any other
fashion photography one would find in the real world with a little bit of Photoshop thrown in. It
is well known that Real Life fashion is about making beautiful models look more beautiful, and
most Real Life magazines, advertisements, and TV shows would use similar images giving off
similar messages about body image. What is new here is not the idea of the objectification of
women or the emphasis placed on thinness and beauty. The novelty springs from the idea that
these images were constructed by users as avatars – alter egos, if you will – to represent their
Real Life selves.
The blonde, tan model contemplating her absent lover could be the same person in Real Life, but
she could also be an overweight middle-aged lady whose hair just began to turn gray. For all we
know, it could be an eighty year old man.

Second Life is remarkable because of its

anonymity; it gives people a chance to be
whomever they want to be. The simple fact
is that nobody is going to create an avatar
that is obese, ugly, or old. In today's society,
there is a strict, very well defined formula for
what makes an ideal person, and in Second
Life there is no reason for everyone and
anyone not to be this ideal person.

Further, there is reason to believe, beyond

simply the theories of deep emotional
involvement, that a person's actions in a
virtual world affect that person's real life Fig. 2: Thoughts of You photo from the Second
attitude and behavior. Research of the so- Life Gallery
called “Proteus Effect” by Yee and Bailenson
at Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab portrays several examples of this
“Transformed Self-Representation,” initially aimed at uncovering the effects of “walking in
digital shoes.” People given taller avatars were more confident. When they saw their avatar lose
weight after exercising more, they themselves exercised more. When given an elderly avatar,
elderly stereotyping was reduced. When given a more attractive avatar, people choose more
attractive potential partners. And even when given a different gender, people adjust to the social
norms of that gender. The conclusion can be drawn that people internalize and begin to embody
the identity of the avatar that represents them.

In “Ugly Duckling by Day, Super Model by Night: The Influence of Body Image on the Use of
Virtual Worlds,” Becerra and Stutts provide a comprehensive survey (review the article for
methodology, statistical analysis, etc.) of the motives for using virtual worlds. Their study
specifically evaluates the role that body image (mediated by the desire to become someone else),
perceived behavior control and subjective norms (the approval of others), and the attitude
towards telepresence (“the sense of being there”) play. At length, their statistical research
exposes a desire to be someone else that can be realized in Second Life:
The findings corroborate that a person’s desire for social acceptance, reflected by
perceptions of physical attractiveness, influence their use of virtual worlds. Easily
observable traits, such as physical attractiveness, influence a person’s self-esteem, as
suggested by Anthony et al. (2007), and low self-esteem increases the desire to become
someone else, which may increase the use of virtual worlds.
As unfortunate as it is that poor body image increases the desire to be someone else, it follows
that an avatar will inevitably be created to be attractive – this is, after all, why people use virtual
worlds. Overall, this suggests the idea that the beautiful avatars of Second Life are often a
means by which users can transcend their unchangeable Real Life bodies – apparently a primary
intention in using Second Life.
This concept poses both benefits and risks. The documentary Second Skin introduces the life of
a man named Andrew with cerebral palsy. In Real Life, he is mostly paralyzed, confined to a
wheelchair, and cannot speak. Yet “As Mienai Kitsune he's been called a true friend, been
involved in many guild wars, co-run a graphic shop, and much more on Second Life and Gaia
Online” (“About Second Skin”). This phenomenal success is a testament to virtual worlds'
capacity to allow someone to transcend their real life physical form. Becerra and Stutts
acknowledge this potential, saying that their work “does not suggest that only individuals with
low self-esteem use virtual worlds. It suggests that environments, such as virtual worlds, that
reduce the importance of an easily observable trait, such as physical attractiveness, allow
individuals to be valued on traits that may not be easily observable such as kindness, warmth,
and/or honesty.” Andrew's story is a perfect example of an individual who uses Second Life to
reduce the importance of his cerebral palsy and let his kindness, warmth, honesty, etc. show
through over his disability.

Another success story is that of Kevin Keel, who met his girlfriend Heather Cowan in a virtual
world, learning about each other “from the inside out,” without being able to judge based on
appearance. The Stanford-based Daedelus project which studies virtual worlds found that, “Of
the online gamers who have physically dated someone who they first met in a [virtual world],
60% of them don't think the relationship would have happened had they first met face to face.
Many of them say they wouldn't have bothered getting to know the other person for superficial
reasons (e.g. too young, too funny, not my type)” (Yee 2006). However, Kevin also describes
previous online relationships he's had where someone he thought he knew turned out to be a
completely different person in real life.

Ultimately, since Second Life effectively lifts all restrictions of the physical world, people join
because they can be whomever they want in a virtual world. Still, they do not simply want to
escape their real world selves, they want to be someone “better”, which often translates to status,
shows Shire Boss's 2007 New York Times article, “Even in a Virtual World, 'Stuff' Matters.”
Boss makes the common observation that “for the most part the population is young women
bursting from their blouses and young men bulging with muscle,” but goes on to suggest that
most Second Life decisions are based on status and how others perceive them more than
anything else. This is consistent with Becerra and Stutts, who introduced their article by saying
that poor body image leads to the desire to be someone else (and thus increased virtual world
usage) because ugliness is not socially acceptable. Boss quotes Second Life blogger Mark
Wallace, “People buy these huge McMansions in Second Life that are just as ugly as any
McMansions in real life, because to them that is what’s status-y.” This suggests a new trend: that
avatar creation and virtual world use are not merely about becoming someone else, and it is not
merely about creating the perfect digital representation of the way you really see yourself. In
fact in the same article, “People don’t take jobs just for the money,” said Dan Siciliano, who
teaches finance at Stanford Law School and has studied the economies of virtual worlds. “They
do it to feel important and be rewarded.” Second Life is a world where people go to escape the
pressures of real life – work, for instance. The fact that those who don't play Second Life for the
money take jobs anyway just as a status symbol reveals an intense desire to climb up the social
ladder. Even the virtual world is all about reaching a higher class; it's all about status.
A paper published in February 2009 entitled “Knee-High Boots and Six-Pack Abs:
Autoethnographic Reflections on Gender and Technology in Second Life” offers an avenue to
join the insights concerning body image with the Second Life status-obsession. Just as skinny,
beautiful avatars were photographed in the museum of Second Life and Boss noted a world of
young women busting from their blouses, researchers Dumitrica and Gaden observed “the
prevalence of highly sexualized bodies, or at least bodies where gender is communicated largely
through the emphasis on visual signs: large breasts and tiny waists, pectorals and biceps, and
clothing which emphasizes these qualities...the breasts, the legs and the pectorals – that’s what
the avatars seem to be all about.” But Dumitrica and Gaden take this observation and provide a
new interpretation given their experiences with the technical aspects of the avatar creation
process. What they find is a sort of commodification of avatar parts – a literal objectification of
the body. They explain:
the visual appearance of one’s avatar is, among other things, a marker of status. Clothing,
skins, body parts (including genitalia) are all available for purchase and the manufacture
of these items is one way for skilled SL residents to make money[...]In the world of
appearances, Stephen Webb (2001) observes of environments similar to SL “status[…]is
often accrued by having the best collection of sexually appealing avatars.”
They discover that body parts can actually be -- and for that matter, often must be – bought,
making it actually possible to put a price on a body. As more attractive avatars would obviously
cost more money, it follows that an attractive avatar helps a user not only because of its social
appeal, but also because it is often equated with status and money in the same way that a
McMansion would be.

This obsession with attractiveness for status motivations is potentially problematic on a very
deep level. Dumitrica and Gaden's autoethnography shows that “creating your avatar is in fact
performing gender stereotypes, materializing them and offering them to others in the hope that
they would be attractive, interesting, appealing.” By seeking a more ideal body figure or a
higher social status, Second Life users are subconsciously conforming to as well as reinforcing
the standard appearance-based stereotypes – in particular that of the sexualized female, the body
as an object, and attractiveness as a necessity for social interaction.

Of course there are those who consciously aim to resist the stereotype:
In an act of revolt – which could equally be construed as an act of self-protection –
Georgia changed her avatar's looks, filling out her waist, reducing her breasts, and trying
to make her as androgynous as possible. Soon enough, she wrote in her diary that she felt
like 'an interloper. I didn't belong in my free/mismatched/un-'sexy' clothes... I felt like
such a loser. In a virtual world!' (Feb 1, 2008). This seemed to be an interpretation which
spanned contexts - from a beach party scenario to a scholarly discussion group. Across
these sites we observed similar styling for the avatars we encountered and felt similar
pressures to ‘fit in.’ (Dumitrica & Gaden 2009)
This anecdote speaks forcefully to the power of peer pressure, which is clearly is a strong player
in the promotion of the stereotype. It can be inferred from this story that it is difficult to not fit in
and not conform to the norm in any situation, but it is exceedingly difficult to resist conformity
when it is so easy to move a few switches and have the ideal, desired body. There is pressure not
only from one's peers to conform, but from the system itself, which seems to constantly whisper,
“Why not?” And unlike the physically limited real world, everyone can fit in, and the masses
do. The result is a strengthened stereotype and a heightened stigma for those who don't conform.
In the end, it is simply impossible to escape gender. Even when the subject tried to take on the
relatively asexual avatar of a rabbit, she found “a ‘female’ rabbit with large breasts, small
waist, and curvaceous hips and a ‘male’ rabbit with a large penis” (Dumitrica & Gaden, 2009).
In fact, the pervasiveness of the gender stereotype is built into Second Life and its inhabitants to
the point that it interferes with the homosexual demographic as well. Dumitrica and Gaden note
that “A heterosexual normativity was suggested to us primarily through the options available for
creating and enhacing the avatar, but also through the visual predominance of patriarchal ideals
of beauty as stretched by prevailing imagery of the binary male/female.” Apparently, the
stereotype is so ingrained that any non-majority is made uncomfortable or even suppressed.

White Like Me
The desire to fit in and be someone of a higher status transcends body image, however, and we
are brought along into the more sensitive realm of race. The same stereotype conformity
problem leads to the opposite manifestation with regards to race, however. Rather than lead to a
distinct racial gap, we will see how the desire to fit in results in racial and cultural homogeneity.
A New World Notes blog post titled “White Like Me” explores the life of a user with an
ambiguously tan avatar and a body “reminiscent of Jlo” (Au 2003); in reality she is actually a
black woman who just looks like a white girl in Second Life. When asked why she masquerades
as white in Second Life, she cites the fact that most people get their first impressions based on
looks, and thus, on race, whether or not they intend to.

Bel Muse, an avatar in the same situation,

explains, “Everyone can understand the problem
with colored-only bathrooms, or WWII
interment camps, but now [in real life]… I have
to prove myself. I have to make a good
impression right away-- I have to come off nice
and articulate, right away. In Second Life, I
didn't have to. Because for once, I can pass. I
can't pass in real life." The problem here is not
simply one of lingering racism in the United
States. The problem is that in an effort to make
herself understood for who she really is, Bel
finds herself with the desire – perhaps even the Fig. 3: Bel Muse. Source: SLUniverse,
need – to be someone else. Further, the desire internet, 24 February 2005. 10 March 2009.
isn't merely to be someone else, the desire is to <http://www.sluniverse.com/PICS/ProfilePag
be someone with a higher social status and e.aspx?Name=Bel%20Muse>
someone who is more “normal.”

She describes the feeling as “like when I read a book and the heroine is white...it's like white is
just default, but I can transparently apply it to me in my imagination. I loved Star Wars, fave
movie of all time, [but] I don't think it's a story about white people...I think it's just a story.” The
most important and most applicable concept here is that of white as the default. If someone isn't
white, he/she is immediately – almost automatically – considered different. Think if the Star
Wars characters were African American – it would become a story about blacks, not just a story.
The story line wouldn't have changed a bit but the impression left on viewers would have been
completely different; it may even have been seen as commentary on African American culture or
interaction with an implied message about racism in the world today. In a truly equal world, the
interpretation of an utterly aracial movie (the only race in Star Wars is the human race as
contrasted with the aliens) would not depend on the race of the characters.

Again, the desire to be normal – as it were, default – is not unique to Second Life; it is seen
commonly in high schoolers, for instance. But in Second Life, “unlike anywhere else, the choice
isn't really black or white, at all. The choice is to be who we are, or who we want others to see us
as-or, for a need, to be who we are, when others can't see us.” It is this root aspiration to leave
the bounds of the physical and become at long last the norm that is as problematic as it is
liberating.

Since white is the default, “you're white until proven guilty,” Bel says.

The Failure of a Bottom-Up World

Second Life was special for the reason that all content was user-generated; the entire world was
built by Second Life users for Second Life users. In theory, this would allow the people who
don't build the real world (i.e. the lower classes) to incorporate their cultures and their ideas into
Second Life and thus giving minorities a higher status in this new world. But what we see is that
the minorities end up conforming to the stereotypes that society should be trying to avoid, taking
an opportunity to gain a higher status in the world an easy way.

Creator of Second Life Philip Rosedale acknowledges that there is little translation between
culture in Real Life and culture in Second Life, though he simply says to “give it some time.”
He contends that since all content is user-generated, it is inevitable that with enough time to
develop the world, people will bring their real lives and cultures into the game, thus creating a
dynamic world of well-represented culture (Rosedale, 2005). This view would be perfectly valid
if people wanted to bring their real lives into Second Life, but that would defeat a large part of
the purpose of Second Life for many users, like those described above.

The norm is white, pretty, and straight; “White Like Me” also cites a
lesbian who stays in the closet in Second Life to avoid any pre-
judgments. Rather than bringing in their own unique cultures, people
opt to join this “default” so that everybody can finally, once and for
all, be seen as equals. As Bel feared, Second life seems to
“unconsciously foster an environment of racial homogeneity.” Even
the default avatar skin is a universal, ambiguous semi-white so that it
can pass as any race – at the same time, it homogenizes a diverse
racial group into a single look.
Fig. 4: The
We have seen a great deal of stereotyping and conformity in the ambiguous default
context of gender and race, and we can only imagine that the same avatar.
suppression of nonstandard expression extends to class, religion, etc.

This begs the question: is a total adoption of a single cultural norm the only way, or for that
matter a way at all, to achieve equality?

The Mainstream as a Bridge from Second Life to Real Life

The story of Jeffrey Lipsky, avatar Filthy Fluno, chronicled by Sara Corbett in her New York
Times article, “Portrait of an Artist as an Avatar,” details the conventional business and art world
in Second Life and enables us to make a connection between the Second Life mainstream and the
mainstream of globalization that Real Life is headed towards with increasing speed. It should
not come as a surprise that Corbett picks up on the usual details: “it is common to encounter
people wearing the obvious spoils of do-it-yourself perfection like DD breasts or diamond pinkie
rings...What is not possible in real life, it would seem, becomes irresistible in virtual life.” But
by now this has for us become little more than a journalistic refrain. At this point it is more
interesting for us to question the true nature of these goals – is this phenomenon really out of a
pursuit of the ideal? Or is it rather a pursuit of the norm? (Is there a difference?)

It would seem that it is a pursuit of the norm, though at times in this world the norm is also what
is “ideal.” “Portrait of an Artist as an Avatar” tells the story of how Lipsky tries to sell himself
as an artist in Second Life; he then sells his Real Life paintings to his Second Life customers.
Corbett notes, “transferred to the Internet, elitism is little more than a poor business practice. If
the traditional art market is driven by scarcity — with value bestowed upon rare and finite works
created by an anointed few — it may be vulnerable to people like Jeffrey Lipsky, who capitalize
on technology’s propensity for abundance.” In Second Life, there is no point to make work
“scarce” -- all scarcity does is limit one's potential customer base. The world becomes a place
where what is universal becomes valued over what is unique – the ideal shifts to the mass-
produced and the abundant away from the rare and special. Lipsky's story is one where
everything he does “has translated into more mainstream respectability.” We have already seen
how Second Life unintentionally promotes an extraordinary pressure to fit in, but we can take
this observation beyond avatar construction now to say that by its technological nature, Second
Life has become little more than a tool to reach the mainstream. When art of all things has
abandoned specialty and scarcity for abundance and popularity, it is safe to say that the Second
Life world has become driven by the mainstream, the standardized, and the globalized.
Technologies such as Second Life, with their “propensity for abundance” might as well have
been made for just this reason, “And it is usually the most creative and aspirational among us
who stake out these places early, namely the artists and the entrepreneurs, but also the
pornographers, who have in the past deftly commandeered first-generation versions of other new
media — including video cameras, Web sites and chat rooms — bound for the mainstream”
(Corbett, 2009). In this reading, Second Life is but the next technology “bound for the
mainstream.” But more importantly, the rhetoric of the Second Life provokes us to wonder if our
current globalized world is not, too, bound for the mainstream.

Technology, Standardization, and The Spread of Western Culture: Globalization

Considering Second Life as a “prototype” of an entirely globalized world, we are led into the
common debate about whether or not globalization and the removal of barriers between cultures
will lead to a flourish of diversity or an overall “whitewashing” of sorts catalyzed by the
proliferation of Western Culture.

If we encourage a single “global” culture, we are more on our way to full equality and
acceptance, and this new global culture could encompass the many different aspects of the world
today. This would be the pre-Babel ideal – one world, one culture, one language (figuratively).
At the same time, it could end up being a standardized Western civilization where current
minority cultures are suppressed in the sea of homogeneity.

On the other hand, if we discourage a homogeneous world in favor of diversity, we could be

absorbed in a rich melting pot of culture unlike anything we have ever seen. However, the dream
of a united humanity might never be realized, and a world where different races are considered
distinct and separate makes discrimination more likely and intercultural interaction less likely.

We can see evidence of both homogeneity and heterogeneity in the world today. Japan is about
99.4% Japanese (CIA World Factbook). The U.S., though more heterogeneous in some parts
than others (e.g. New York vs. Maine), is the typical example of a melting pot or salad bowl of
culture. New York City, for instance, is 45% white, 36% foreign-born, and has a population that
speaks 170 languages (“New York City”). But even in a heterogeneous country like the U.S., it
seems as if the battle for equality has resulted in a more united, if somewhat standardized, single
American culture.

And so, the “American” culture that has spread throughout the world is not one of diversity, but
rather one of standardization. The case we consider here is that of McDonalds, a brand that has
become an icon not only of American culture but also of globalization as a whole. In his book
The McDonaldization of Society, George Ritzer proposes that “the process by which the
principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American
society as well as of the rest of the world” (2000). No matter where you go in the world,
McDonalds always remains the same. It is the crux of standardization – efficiency, calculability,
predictability, and control as Ritzer points out. By definition when something is standardized, it
loses its uniqueness. Sure, it could be argued that McDonalds represents the American culture,
but it would even be more accurate at this point to say that McDonalds is itself a new culture.
The McDonalds logo has in fact achieved universal recognition, but in doing so, it has left
behind the culture it came from and started its own culture of standardization.

Much of this comes from the notion that the measure of success has always and will always be
the same. Success is measured by popularity, sales, and accessibility. As such, the key to
success always remains the same as well: appeal to the common aspects of humanity. The
ventures that succeed are those that reach the greatest number of people, putting aside what
makes us unique and focusing only on what is the same. This necessarily eliminates cultural
diversity, which is at heart the celebration of our differences. True universality can be achieved
in two ways. It can be shallow, stripped down to the bare bones that humanity shares. Or, it can
be profound, encompassing all of the differences and variation in the human experience. In
practice, the former is far easier, far more pragmatic, and far more abundant.

It is not difficult to see the parallel between the McDonaldization of Society and Second Life's
own mainstream obsession. In Second Life, even appearances are “McDonaldized” so that
everyone's looks are absolutely predictable but lacking individualization.

Indeed, with technology and the internet in particular becoming staples of this Information Age,
it may be near impossible to avoid this sort of McDonaldization. The internet, the so-called
“Information Superhighway,” is designed so that information can be accessed by anyone
anywhere – it is designed for universality, for the mainstream. There is an ongoing debate as to
whether or not globalization will lead to homogeneity or heterogeneity in the end with valid
points for each side; likely (hopefully) there will be a bit of both in a truly globalized world – a
united culture infused with the different backgrounds of the Earth's people. What this discussion
has brought to light is the urgency of making sure that in our pursuit of a united culture, the
driving force of Western society does not overwhelm and suppress the world's diversity. We
must make certain that the stereotype does not become as powerful in the real world as it
appeared in our journey through Second Life.

Towards a New Political Discourse

By now we have traversed the many aspects of the world of Second Life through body image,
gender roles, socioeconomic status, race, stereotype, and ultimately the pressure to conform, all
of which together make up what I call the rhetoric of Second Life. By tracing the single site of
avatar creation through many disciplinary lenses, a number of real world issues can be uncovered
with the same root, suggesting a new frame of discourse for twenty-first century politics. We see
that the problems evidenced by the gender gap, racial inequality, materialism, and cultural
suppression by Western society all lead back to the base desire to become someone of a higher
social standing. Further, this then suggests that the best remedy to all of these problems is
simple: create a system more accepting of those that are not part of the mainstream and thus
remove the pressure to conform. Of course, this is far, far easier said than done, but it frames the
key issues of our time in a new way. The arguments surrounding affirmative action, feminism,
gay marriage, and globalization, to name a few, take on new forms when our primary goal is to
create a system where the stereotype disintegrates and the mainstream no longer dominates. In
this way, the rhetoric of a world where anything is possible gives way to the flaws in our
thinking and suggests a new path and a new mindset for our society as a whole.
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