*This is more or less written in the style of a speech, so when you read it picture yourself at a podium at ComicCon.
My Fellow Nerds,
Isn’t it great where we are today? Isn’t it amazing to see how far geek culture has come from just a few years ago? When people think “Nerd” these days, they no longer picture a skinny weakling with horned rimmed glasses who has a lisp and a different pocket protector for every day of the week. They picture Steve Jobs. When you ask them who Tolkien is, they no longer look at you with a black stare but answer you faster then you can imagine.
I want to tell you that we have defeated the empire, that we have finally found our princess. My Avengers, we…have…assembled! We are in control and we have become what they always feared we would. The norm. We have infiltrated pop culture so deeply that now the ones who shunned us are being shunned. We have come so far that even these….oppressors of geekdom have defected, but not all is well in our castle.
Just like anything that has turned from a movement to the status quo, our identities have been usurped, our ideology has been diluted and we have been infiltrated. I look around and I see men and women everywhere wearing Batman shoes, yet they have no idea who Frank Miller and Alan Moore are. Green mushroom T-shirts as far as the eye can see, but the wearer has no idea where to jump to find it. We have been tainted by these impostors attempting to milk at the breast of our accomplishments.
They do this because they are afraid that they will be left behind as we move forward, but fear not, by their nature alone they will never posses the knowledge we do. As we sit and discuss the minute details of “Secret Wars”, they will be left standing silently in the corner with a Spider-man T-shirt on their chest and they will have nothing to add. That knowledge is what makes us, us. In this ocean of pop culture we are all fish, but it is us who are the sharks in these waters. We are not who we are because it’s what others do, but because we have such love for these subjects. Our passion is what drives us to, not popular opinion.
So I say to you, my fellow nerds, my true geeks. My Trekkies and cosplayers……never forget who you are. Never forget that we know what it’s like to have three lives, not just infinite continues.
For this night, and all the nights that come, I am proud to be one of you.
Wally World Blog 