Certainly science-fiction is deep into sociopath stage now. Not just individuals, but the entire community(s) seems to show sociopathic tendancies if you ask me. I think the driver though is that in the ‘geek’ stage, the thing is new, and thus lacks street-cred, so the people doing it are doing it from a genuine love of it. But then it becomes popular, and a lot of people are in it because it’s “the thing”. This now means it has cred and status, and status is always something people will fight over. Soon there’s people who are interested in only the status, and that’s the sociopath stage.

I think the internet hastens this because it helps move a subculture/interest more swiftly from ‘geek’ to ‘mop’ phase. Interests can get into the mainstream more quickly thanks to internet publicity. The lifecycle is accellerated.

Yes, I’ve been to gigs like that, and sometimes those thirty people are enthusiastic enough that it feels as though there are more than a hundred people in the room. But we know it’s not economically viable for anyone to tour with a full electric band with those sorts of numbers.

Yrs
Thor