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Does anyone feel like taking a stab at explaining in non-poetic form what he means by "meaning games"?

by habitue 11y ago

chadzawistowski 11y ago
A game is something one plays to entertain themselves. It typically involves goals and a framework for understanding progress. 'Tricking' people into playing games could provide structure to their lives, and/or orient their potential towards something constructive for society.
davesque 11y ago
My interpretation is that he's basically calling out all of society as a kind of consumerism. The > 40 folks spend most of their time crafting the illusion of a pursuit of meaning ("Hey, why don't you try my product or my religion or my self-help book or my investment plan or why don't you sit down and listen to what I have to say?") The < 40 folks spend most of their time experimenting with or purchasing or rejecting all the ideas/products that the > 40 folks create. The author calls them "meaning games" because he asserts that meaning is not universal truth but more of a cultural trend. So it's a game because you never actually achieve meaning. You just play the game and constantly think you're about to achieve meaning. That creates a kind of enthalpy that perpetuates society.
- adevine 11y ago
  Thank you for your extremely clear, to-the-point tl;dr
- joshuak 11y ago
  I think the reference to consumerism leads ones understanding astray. It's is not particularly more apropos to consumerism then any other context of meaning. Religion, self image, ambition, love life, are all equally relevant here. Your last paragraph captures it best, and his assertion does not seem to have any obvious contradictions in reality.
- habitue 10y ago
  I'd like to belatedly thank you for this lucid explanation :)
akilg 11y ago
In the positive: whatever captures the mind and imagination, anything that makes you say "this is the future!". In the negative: whatever outrages and makes you say "this must change for us to move forward!". Basically anything that charges you with emotion that feels "big". I think the author would agree that Elon Musk, Donald Trump and Steve Jobs are some of the biggest recent makers of meaning games.
nagrom 11y ago
Books, religion, university research, fashion trends and charities. Wars, lynch mobs, cartoons, traditions, village fetes, school plays, professional plays, business strategies and restaurant reviews. Newspapers, television stations, YCombinator, football teams and new political parties. Anything to which a multitude of younger, stupider people can claim allegiance for which to be nice or mean to their peers.
- Alex3917 11y ago
  This. Chris Hedges has a whole book about this called War Is A Force that Gives Us Meaning. It's shouldn't be that difficult to understand, considering we spend all day every day interacting with these institutions, so it's disappointing to see so many otherwise intelligent people here who don't seem to grok what he's talking about.
throwanem 11y ago
TED talks are a great example.
mattmcknight 11y ago
I see it as an reference to Wittgenstein's analogy of language games. [1] That was a concept designed to show that words do not intrinsically have meaning or refer to the world, as many philosophers claimed. Rather, language gets meaning in the context of the actions of its usage with others, much like the rules and actions in a game. The interpretation for a meaning game would be that life does not have intrinsic meaning, but we create or find constructs between ourselves and other people from which we can derive a contextual meaning. These meaning games then give us a purpose we can involve ourselves in. By constructing these games for others, say a parent creating a game of success in schooling for their child, we can give them contextual meaning and purpose. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language-game_(philosophy) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language-game_(philosophy)
peteretep 11y ago
Things people quote on pictures of stock photography as Snapchat memes

Does anyone feel like taking a stab at explaining in non-poetic form what he means by "meaning games"?

by habitue 11y ago

Does anyone feel like taking a stab at explaining in non-poetic form what he means by "meaning games"?

A game is something one plays to entertain themselves. It typically involves goals and a framework for understanding progress. 'Tricking' people into playing games could provide structure to their lives, and/or orient their potential towards something constructive for society.

davesque 11y ago

My interpretation is that he's basically calling out all of society as a kind of consumerism. The > 40 folks spend most of their time crafting the illusion of a pursuit of meaning ("Hey, why don't you try my product or my religion or my self-help book or my investment plan or why don't you sit down and listen to what I have to say?") The < 40 folks spend most of their time experimenting with or purchasing or rejecting all the ideas/products that the > 40 folks create. The author calls them "meaning games" because he asserts that meaning is not universal truth but more of a cultural trend. So it's a game because you never actually achieve meaning. You just play the game and constantly think you're about to achieve meaning. That creates a kind of enthalpy that perpetuates society.

adevine 11y ago
Thank you for your extremely clear, to-the-point tl;dr
joshuak 11y ago
I think the reference to consumerism leads ones understanding astray. It's is not particularly more apropos to consumerism then any other context of meaning. Religion, self image, ambition, love life, are all equally relevant here. Your last paragraph captures it best, and his assertion does not seem to have any obvious contradictions in reality.
habitue 10y ago
I'd like to belatedly thank you for this lucid explanation :)

akilg 11y ago

In the positive: whatever captures the mind and imagination, anything that makes you say "this is the future!". In the negative: whatever outrages and makes you say "this must change for us to move forward!". Basically anything that charges you with emotion that feels "big". I think the author would agree that Elon Musk, Donald Trump and Steve Jobs are some of the biggest recent makers of meaning games.

nagrom 11y ago

Books, religion, university research, fashion trends and charities. Wars, lynch mobs, cartoons, traditions, village fetes, school plays, professional plays, business strategies and restaurant reviews. Newspapers, television stations, YCombinator, football teams and new political parties. Anything to which a multitude of younger, stupider people can claim allegiance for which to be nice or mean to their peers.

Alex3917 11y ago
This. Chris Hedges has a whole book about this called War Is A Force that Gives Us Meaning. It's shouldn't be that difficult to understand, considering we spend all day every day interacting with these institutions, so it's disappointing to see so many otherwise intelligent people here who don't seem to grok what he's talking about.

throwanem 11y ago

TED talks are a great example.

mattmcknight 11y ago

I see it as an reference to Wittgenstein's analogy of language games. [1] That was a concept designed to show that words do not intrinsically have meaning or refer to the world, as many philosophers claimed. Rather, language gets meaning in the context of the actions of its usage with others, much like the rules and actions in a game. The interpretation for a meaning game would be that life does not have intrinsic meaning, but we create or find constructs between ourselves and other people from which we can derive a contextual meaning. These meaning games then give us a purpose we can involve ourselves in. By constructing these games for others, say a parent creating a game of success in schooling for their child, we can give them contextual meaning and purpose. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language-game_(philosophy) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language-game_(philosophy)

peteretep 11y ago

Things people quote on pictures of stock photography as Snapchat memes