THE GOBLIN MARKET

Many fantasy science fiction books have a goblin market, a dangerous place where you can buy dangerous things.

Most of these books warn that children are not safe in the goblin market.

For me, the Goblin Market is a metaphor for going to a place where all cultures interact while buying and selling the goods only they make.

I am lucky in the SF Bay Area. The used goods places sell the folk art that come from the most remote areas of the world. Modern cities are full of plastic and rayon. If you want dolls made in the old ways, you need to go to the places where the old ways are still remembered. It is nice that modern society does not value folk art. That way I can afford to collect it.

I also like the goblin market as a lesson in being polite to EVERYONE. You never know who is a Yoda and who is a thief. Some sellers tell the truth in a way designed to obfuscate. Some people always lie. Insulting someone in a coffee shop can get you killed.

Parts of the internet have turned into a goblin market. The internet was deliberately designed to be impossible to control. Because the decision was made that allowing people to read the truth about science research was more important than anything else.

Now we all have to learn to tell the truth from a plausible lie. Or tell the truth from a partially true statement.

For instance, last night Trump said he was a Republican and would stay a Republican through the nominating process. He failed to state that he would support the Republican candidate, no matter who that candidate turned out to be.