Hotel California 1976

A name like that hardly needs explanation on where it originates from. The epic Eagles song is known by almost everyone I think. One of the best songs ever for me. The music, the text and how it makes you think on life and your choices. One of the members of the Eagles, Don Felder, explained on what experience the song is based.

All of us kind of drove into LA at night. Nobody was from California, and if you drive into LA at night… you can just see this glow on the horizon of lights, and the images that start running through your head of Hollywood and all the dreams that you have, and so it was kind of about that… what we started writing the song about. Coming into LA… and from that Life in the Fast Lane came out of it, and Wasted Time and a bunch of other songs.”
Source: Wikipedia

Hotel California’s 2021

The lyrics still make sense, maybe even more than before, due to the big changes in how we interact with each other through many communication devices that can be heaven or/and hell, depending how well you are able to live with the impact of them. The stories on how the use and consequences of modern communication devices have changed our way of life are endless. We hardly can imagine to live without the Internet, which basically means we hardly can imagine to live without having the opportunity to connect via a few clicks. I think it probably already has become impossible for almost all people on our planet to completely disconnect from an online existence, even if you would want to and would try, because our life has been digitalised in so many ways you would have no access anymore to certain parts of yourself/ your life, if you would go offline completely. Offline banking for instance. Health care. Taxes.

Old files on handwritten, typed or printed paper have become databases and when disconnecting from databases you do not exist anymore in an official way. Deleting certain registrations will be not possible at all most likely because you will become invisible for organisations that monitor your life and the government will not allow that. They will attempt (and succeed) to track you down when you would find a way out of the system and all your options to live without their control will be blocked or such options simply do not exist. You probably will be marked as illegal and criminal if you would succeed to escape all systems. Even when your only goal would be to want to live off the grid totally. If already it would be allowed and possible you will run into a lot of troubles for simple things. Like at the moment needing official registrations for a negative Covid test and vaccinations to be allowed to travel in and out many countries. Good luck with showing your self-distributed test results and your word of honour on being vaccinated as your travel passport.

And then there are of course our tablets and mobile phones as well with many apps controlling our communication and how we present ourselves. That last part causes many to feel stressed. It all has become a way of life itself . . . . how do I show myself to the world and my followers. How do I keep their attention? How do I collect more followers and likes? How do I perfect my stream into something that makes others see and believe how great I look and how wonderful my life is? Until you reach a point of no return where you realise to have killed the real you and have become a dream version of yourself that does not exist. Many will trap themselves into this kind of behaviours, creating their own Hotel California.

Blame the system(s)!

Yes . . . the systems we all are linked with are both Heaven and Hell. They provide us with forms of interconnectedness that can be great as well as terrible. To get something done in a maze of data with employees stuck into their rules and official procedures is like swimming in mud. Slow progress or not at all. More a sink hole sometimes when certain data have not been updated correctly or show an error, or when certain systems are not compatible. To change something on a personal level can be quite a battle already, let alone to change something on a bigger scale. To change something worldwide is the ultimate horror show because each country has its own rules, habits, politics, systems and beliefs. Meanwhile the climate change follows its own pace, regardless how slow, unwilling and stuck humans are in their systems.

To know the importance of having to act on for instance the effects of climate change and to have access to the bigger picture through modern technology showing baffling and irrefutable proof, which can be shared worldwide with a few clicks, seem to be not impressive and motivating enough to move systems into becoming more effective and to make different systems worldwide communicate better. Advanced technology does not guarantee advanced cooperation at all. The use of manipulative fake news and deep fake video technology show how it even has become more complex. You can be fooled easily while thinking you are doing a hell of a job. Working together via modern communications asks for a whole set of new skills we do not have by default.

Isn’t it ironic . . . to have access to modern communication all over the world but not able to work with it in an effective or safe way. The chaos in how every country or even parts of a country handled the pandemic differently tells enough on how ineffective and seemingly impossible it is to work together while facing a worldwide threat. It is not all unwillingness. It also is being incapable to communicate well, despite having all channels for it. Partly a human defect, partly a technical defect making it complex to communicate well via bureaucratic systems that are connected without really feeling connected enough to use its potential, plus more and more an excellent cybersecurity needed to know if it is to be trusted. One day the universe will take its ‘revenge’, or rather just confront us with . . . . okay . . . you knew what had to be done but failed to act effective enough, so now you will have to live with the dramatic consequences . . . That is, if you / I / we will survive at all. It sometimes feels as if we live in one big Hotel California.

Escape to Second Life maybe?

Don’t fool yourself too much with that, unless you have learned already how to deal with Second Life as likewise society. Second Life also can be a Heaven and Hell you see?. Even a place that is meant to kind of escape our every day life with its multiple Hotel California’s, has boobytraps that lead people into other Hotels California. The fame chasers, the attention addicts, the obsessed lovers, the beauty contest insanity, the haters, the ego’s spoiling their own credibility, the battle of sexes, the battles on love and expectations. Wow, humans really have a talent for making their own mess or trying to mess up others.

Of course Second Life also just is a Hotel California in other ways, not especially negative. A pleasant addiction, an international platform that can bring surprisingly nice meets and a place where you can express yourself in a free way without limitations we maybe meet in RL or because that kind of expressing yourself is impossible in RL. You can easily widen your horizon via SL so to speak and share your mind with someone. I think all of that in combination with the avatars we choose to represent ourselves inworld make it a unique place of immersion in a way that cannot be done so easily on other platforms of communication.

And because Second Life is not a game that ends after you have reached a certain level, but is very real (if you choose to be genuine), it allows us to create bonds like we do in RL. Therefore, often when someone leaves Second Life it is not a permanent act. Almost everyone returns, also after less pleasant experiences. Because after a while you start to miss all it has to offer when you find a few good friends to share with. When a friend becomes a lover it only increases this feeling connected and immersed and such a connection makes you want to stay for that reason as well. It mainly is, or at least should be, a friendly Hotel California that actually does have an exit when troubles appear. You can log off and do not have to login again . . . just we tend to choose to login again, also after troubles and also after departing for a shorter or longer period.

So we all are fucked?

Only if you insist to look at it like that for the rest of your life. Being fucked for real (physically) has a start and end, right? When people appreciate it they will have many starts and ends in that way. Because yes, being fucked can be very nice of course when done well ; )) But if someone does not appreciate it anymore it is better to not start again instead of pretending to still like it. It then is time to leave it behind as ways of connecting. So, when you feel fucked in a way like shit happening to you . . . . you also should end it. Why pretend to still like it when you actually do not? You fool yourself with believing it all can be magically restored as long as you keep your focus on that. Denial is a powerful force yes. It prevents you to have to face the reality of having reached an end. But why engage yourself into a wishful thinking connection while knowing you do have the power to end it? Yes, it needs a shift of your mind. It needs a choice to accept that something or someone you used to feel as a nice part of your life is no longer that nice part anymore. You need new experiences and new beginnings.

Yeah, yeah . . . how to do so huh?

I won’t tell you it is easy no. But it matters to not go down on what happens to you in your life. I know it is easier to blame someone or something, like I kind of blame the system for not regulating climate changes fast enough. But even when a blame would be legitimate and correct, it does not help to move past the consequences of it when you get stuck into blaming and go blind on moving on. To disconnect from something or someone you feel bad with is the only way to move on. A checkout AND leave yes. Away from the Hotel. I may be not able to disconnect from the systems that rule my life with sometimes less pleasant consequences, but I am able to disconnect myself from feeling a victim or helpless. I can tell myself . . oh what the hell . . I still have my life and can be happy if I choose to do things that make me feel happy. I can live my life in a more sustainable way and try to make a difference by supporting Greenpeace or some other organisation with a certain influence on myself, politicians and companies.

Same with Second Life. If you feel bad with someone or something . . . disconnect from it and move on. Not doing so is trapping yourself into vicious circles of obsession with blames, victimhood or even revenge, because you think that makes you feel better. Revenge only makes things worse however, creating more frustrations and distrust. Revenge basically is tearing down a bridge that might still have existed before the revenge. It disables a way back. That should be your ultimate wake-up call to now really disconnect and move on instead of staring at your own literally unbridgeable gap.

Shit just happens and shit stays shit. It stays smelly and kind of not what you like to be your daily stuff. It also does not really matter who is responsible for shit that happened. If it is you yourself or another does not make the difference for yes or no actively choosing to move on and away from the destroyed bridge. The world is bigger than your shit you know. You can leave a shit Hotel so to speak. And you should eventually. Because time is precious and your life as well.

The bright side is your way out

So yes, above all . . . look at the bright side of life. Always. The fact many return to SL after a while indicates they still prefer to appreciate the good over the bad more. It will not change your shit into perfume. Of course not. Shit is not some sort of blessing either. It’s more a lesson and insight on how not to act maybe or what not to expect etc etc. But by looking at the bright side you can at least smile again on how shit was not the best way to smell nice. Smelling nice simply means needing a lot of humour and positivity. Because we do live in a shit world with many shit experiences and no one will be free of that. There are however more nice smells than bad smells if only you put your nose into the right direction.

And while I know that this epic song is on how people find themselves unable to leave their shit, I believe in us being able to leave shit, unless there is not one single alternative in the whole universe left to look at. That’s a big space . . . . and your mind as well is a big space. To suggest there would be no alternative way is an assumption I would not dare to say to be true. We like to choose easy ways yes . . . . and the alternative ways are not necessarily easy. Or at least not at the start, where you still feel torn between compassion for change and self-pity.

Are you playing guru or what?

Nope. I just missed a bit to write a blog when something is coming at me and triggers my mind into thoughts and feelings and I decided to make time for it again. Just for this occasion. The Hotel California song was shared with me by someone I met in Second Life 16 months ago and whom I happened to fall in love with and still feel deeply connected with. More than ever even. That’s the beauty of time and experiences together. They challenge and reinforce a connection when minds match. So yes, our Hotel California actually is cool. We do not want to check out, nor leave. Who knows we live in our Hotel till the end of time. And I just learned there seems to be an end of time, or at least an end to the meaning of time and the changes that come with it. When all becomes permanent and unchangeable you can wonder if that is heaven or hell. To me it sounds like hell. Because no changes in our universe means we cannot exist anymore. Everything will die, including us. Maybe that’s a kind of heaven for the planet we torture so terribly, to know we will lose that power one day. But that’s another story ; )

Just listen . . . and get it

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night
There she stood in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
“This could be Heaven or this could be Hell”
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say…

Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the Hotel California
Any time of year (Any time of year)
You can find it here

Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes bends
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

So I called up the Captain,
“Please bring me my wine”
He said, “We haven’t had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine”
And still those voices are calling from far away,
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say…

Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
They livin’ it up at the Hotel California
What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise)
Bring your alibis

Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said “We are all just prisoners here, of our own device”
And in the master’s chambers,
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can’t kill the beast

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
“Relax, ” said the night man,
“We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave! “

And on that bright side . . .

The ‘subtitles’ for this video:

School of Life

For who is interested: Hotel Universe

On time becoming meaningless and the possible death of our universe in which nothing exists anymore except darkness and cold. And nope, there also will be no Hotel California to run to, only Hotel Universe with no lights and no heating. I feel privileged to live in the present time (despite all dangers and shit all over the world) and I enjoy it every day. The link below redirects you to the last minutes of the video, about the end of time. It makes more sense however to watch all, for a better understanding, that is if you are interested in a bit of science.