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MBTHVSK t1_izcpnus wrote

It´s almost like the willingness to "play hard" with other people in everyday situations and in more serious circumstances is exactly what makes human beings hard to criticize or invalidate.

There's always the energy of playing around other people's intentions, of countering their efforts, of figuring out and bending their rules, of crafting situations that feel novel and beautiful while inside of situations that feel restrictive and challenging.

When your own actions feel like magnificent maneuvers in a game, when your feelings feel like those of someone simply trying to enjoy a game, it's hard to be made felt like a malicious idiot.

Whoever feels like they have a childlike whimsy evolved to an adult form is a person quite difficult to change. It's why authoritative culture is the way it is, why people with power act the way they do, why common folk are hard to deal with.

It all feels like rather special forms of being human, special like all good moments in good games, and we are all convinced we know the difference between chessmaster and cheater, dungeon master and table flipper, and devote ourselves to making life interesting but not insufferable in our own contentious ways.

Oh so eager to see someone else bend their cards in agitation.

If games contain a mysterious spice of pleasure that can't be defined, then perhaps that very joy is exactly what we yet have put to put our fingers on! That elusive sense of comfort and purpose in our moments where we know others are apt to despise us. That is the core of what we have yet to define.

Signed, a person already using games a central point of his theory. Who believes this very thing we're talking about right now, that spirit of playfulness, is exactly what's allowed us to out-hunt all other species, and live so wonderfully shameless.

I believe understanding the joys of games is the key to understanding why other people feel their actions are fundamentally and essentially good no matter how vile we call them, and thereby the key to ending all arguments about why anybody does anything at all.

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acfox13 t1_izd5gln wrote

Look into Jaak Paksap's work on affective neuroscience. PLAY is one of the core brain systems he defined in his work.

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Zaptruder t1_izdearg wrote

Play... otherwise known as figuring out the boundaries, the affective actions, and required behaviours to maximize gain within that limited field of engagement.

In other words, games allow us to deconstruct a complex environment with limitless variables into one that can be easily comprehended and navigated, which would provide significant evolutionary advantages!

The trick of life is to perceiving and choosing which games to play.

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VersaceEauFraiche t1_izet7ev wrote

This reminds me of Nietzsche's posit, contra Darwin, that life is not about survival and reproduction, but about a will to power. Life is about demonstrating mastery over competitors, joyous expression of power, owning space, etc.

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CaseyTS t1_izdv6ne wrote

>ending all arguments about why anybody does anything at all

Had me until here. I realize this is probably hyperbole, but despite whatever difficulties arise, we absolutely must have debates about why people do big, important things at the very least. The joy of games may explain why some people are selfish in how they think about their actions (i.e. they see their actions as fundamentally good, as you say), and that is an obstacle to arguing about why people do things, but we humans have to be able to make responsible large-scale decisions on nuanced topics. Without debating how exactly to proceed on those large-scale decisions, that is utterly impossible in practice.

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MBTHVSK t1_izgmaaj wrote

Wouldn't you say that being on the same page about big decisions seems impossible as of yet? After all, we all watch the same hollywood movies and celebrate similar kinds of holidays, and if you asked the average person about their morality the answers wouldn't be too different. And yet, there seems to be a disconnect between how people describe themselves and the behaviors they actually display. There seems to be a huge gap between how people identify as mature and peaceful and yet act much the opposite. And it's like every drop of criticism fails to rust away our behavior because there's some kind of beautiful spark to what we do and why we do it that can't be explained as mere hedonism or recklessness.

Perhaps "ending arguments about behavior" isn't the point. The point is to keep people from being surprised and confused by the most irritating and most stupendous actions anybody can possibly take. Doesn't it seem like we're all online to try and do that? Come up with a way to deconstruct the type of adult-minded decisions and well-contemplated actions that make our hearts squirm with resentment or possibly blissful awe? So that we can actually, really control ourselves when we feel as though control is what we already have in abundance?

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