It is a Known Thing that most systems of magic/philosophy have a Dangerous Lie/HalfTruth embedded.

[azurelunatic]

Accidental condensation of this expansion of the source

I found one in the youngwizards books. It is that 'Wizardry does not live in an unwilling heart.' And it is technically true that wizardry does not. But from Deep Wizardry, there is the talk about how most people find that it's normal to have a nameless sorrow at the bottom of the soul. And a blighted wizardry is one of the most dangerous things out there.

It hit me because in the Making Light blog archive that mocks the people who poured gasoline into fluorescent light tubes, someone said that if magic were real, there would inevitably be non-maskable magic-related injuries with people doing Stupid Shit with Magic.

But there are. And it is maskable if you do not know what wizardry does, that instead of gross physical collateral damage, there is mental and emotional damage, and the odd bit of "No one will believe this, so I will not say."

And then there are the people who should have been wizards but who are not. They should have been, but all the energy that should have been devoted to making things better by means of those little daily wizardries instead goes to anger and self-defeating mental poison. It hurts to breathe the same air as them, because they are still broadcasting on wizard channels.

When we say to them, "But you are a wizard," the Lone Power does not even have to step in again, because the Lone Power has already done enough.

Comments

[pauamma]

Disclaimer: this may be oversimplifying what you said (or the inferences you drew from the book's content), or ignoring important points. It may also mix in unrelated half-understood mangled recollections of stuff I heard or read elsewhere.

It seems to me that one basic axiom/tenet/claim of magic is that words (or more generally, symbolic thought) will let practitioners? believers? shape or affect the outside world directly.

Relatedly, in most online shared realities (M*s, IRC channels, MMORPGs), the boundary between words/statements and "actions" (/me, :, pose, emote) becomes blurred or nonexistent. (Many such places take that in account in their TOS or etiquette standards or guidelines).

So now I'm wondering. Can "magic" (as defined above) be said to be an operative force in the above social places, and should members (and enforcers) be made aware of those considerations and likely implications? (Many, perhaps most, already are, if partially or obscurely, but still...)

[azurelunatic]

Computers are already pushing the boundaries between reality and magic, because we tell them to do things with words.

Magic-done-with-words tends to hinge on being able to deliver the words in such a way that they *are* reality-truth. Some people say things and you just don't believe them. Other people say things and even someone who hasn't got a magical background is struck with their delivery and what they have to say.

I think it's more "should become aware of" rather than "should be made aware of", as it's something that might not come over that well (might come over as crackpot, in fact) if it's introduced in a wrong way. I think the current awareness of the blur between words and actions and the rules in place on most things like you mentioned is already sufficient for most purposes.

I do these things with my words in person as well as on the computer. I just have to think a little faster on the fly and be more trusting of having the right words even when I don't know what to say.