Overheard Starbuck

"They're animals."
---"They found their pack early on. Look how energized they are. ...While you were left alone to your own misperceptions and misconceptions, they raised each other from pups. No need to finesse when there're always brothers and sisters around to smooth-over or pound-out the rough spots."
"No need to learn how to think."
---"They're the future. ... As interactive software gets more sophisticated & children are left less & less to their own devices, like you were, or to the brutalizing yet secure presence of others, like them--games and their on-line communities will become the primary socializing force in kids' lives. ... Soon you'll be able to differentiate the various gangs by the computer games their parents bought for them when they were preschoolers and the learning programs used by their school districts."
"I thought Goth kids were creepy."
---"On the contrary, these packs seemlessly morph into corporate or military hierarchies. ... More to the point no one's complaining to the point of investing in infrastructure that might pry kids from their computers. Not the churches, the Pentagon, corporations, or foundations."
"There's a war on."
---"There's always something on. ... There's nothing just for kids that can compete with the profits from interactive media."
"There's music & tv."
---"That's old school."