A number of factors lately seem to have contributed to increasing the friction between different nationalities and cultures of residents within Second Life.

Firstly, of course, we have the ... robust nature of some of the political extrusions into Second Life - largely harmless and inconsequential wars between small numbers of ideological groups - though no less deadly serious to the participants.

Secondly there's the whole issue of sexual ageplay - a nebulous and intractable blob of different, and sometimes only marginally related, concepts. Especially with Lolita fashions apparently being the big thing in non-USA clothing stores this season. On the streets and in the stores, loli and gothloli fashions are widespread in the physical world this season in many parts of the real world - though in the USA, this trend is notably absent. In Second Life, of course, even the names are potentially problematic, being inextricably connected with sexual ageplay in a few cultures.

Then we have the gambling bans. Some Europeans blame the USA laws for impacting lucrative businesses and income when Linden Lab began enforcing the regulations.

Now the VAT collection regulations come to the fore. Eric Reuters attended Zee Linden's Q&A and collected the thoughts of European some European landowners. Of course, the smallest fish in the pond are not affected, but for large players - particularly those with small profit margins, the local payable VAT may well exceed any profit that the landowner is making from their activities. Of course, USA sales taxes are not presently applicable to the services for which Linden Lab bills - which furthers the perception of unfairness and imbalance.

Each of these things seems to be contributing to a kind of progressive nationalistic acrimony. You've probably seen it on blogs and heard grumblings inworld. It all seems to lead people to view each-other less as individuals, and more as representative stereotypes of nationalistic ideologies or cultural mores.

To me, one of Second Life's great strengths has been how it brings people together and how it encourages us to see each-other as individuals - varied and diverse. People are people, however, and viewing others in terms of broad (and frequently inaccurate) political, social, cultural and nationalistic stereotypes is frequently an easy solution. It just doesn't strike me as a very good solution. We can do better. We probably should. Why don't we seem to want to?