4 ms·

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

salawat 8y ago
That's a copout if I've ever heard one. A few years ago, there was a game some adolescents would play where they would run up to an unsuspecting person person and bludgeon them as hard as possible to knock them out. There have been variants of the same pattern of behavior except involving strikes to other areas. It is absolutely justifiable to hate a person for engaging in a game that involves inflicting harm on others. This attitude to hate the game rather than those forcing it on everyone else just seeks to divest blame from the actors that perpetuate the malignant activity, to an assumption that "the game" is some mysterious standalone force that subverts the will of the participants and justifies their innocence. In short, "the devil made me do it" is not an excuse for poor moral choices. Lets take it even further. I have a game. I'm going to get all the lifesaving equipment I can, and open a facility. This facility is going to specialize in a particular type of highly asymmetric transactions, and I'm going to do everything I can to inflict the greatest financial harm I can, because gee, the way we keep score mandates I do so to keep the game going. It's a hard realization to come to, but as human beings and individuals, our collective behavior is dependent and a composition our individual choices. And for a not insignificant portion of our population, we have succeeded in allowing it to scrape together a world around itself where maybe it takes a week to explain the technicalities, but it doesn't take a layman more than an a 15 minutes to come to the conclusion there is something seriously wrong. This is one of those cases where rationalization has been left unchecked or unquestioned for far too long. To wrap around to the true meaning underlying your aphorism, which is diluted without context: Don't hate the market participants for participating in the market; but feel free to call out the hypocrisy of dealing in grievous financial harm in trade for necessary care. If you can't question or shame the actions of the ones perpetuating the status quo, you'll never change a blessed thing. Mrs. Bloom in Accounting is still a part of it. Even if she'd rather not think about it.
- mrguyorama 8y ago
  I agree with most of your post but do you have any evidence that "the knockout game" was an actual thing and not just a few unconnected instances played up with scaremongering?
threatofrain 8y ago
If someone hates both, and that includes you, do you hate back or hate the game that made them hate you? Seems like too much given to a silly one-liner for movies.

That's a copout if I've ever heard one. A few years ago, there was a game some adolescents would play where they would run up to an unsuspecting person person and bludgeon them as hard as possible to knock them out. There have been variants of the same pattern of behavior except involving strikes to other areas. It is absolutely justifiable to hate a person for engaging in a game that involves inflicting harm on others. This attitude to hate the game rather than those forcing it on everyone else just seeks to divest blame from the actors that perpetuate the malignant activity, to an assumption that "the game" is some mysterious standalone force that subverts the will of the participants and justifies their innocence. In short, "the devil made me do it" is not an excuse for poor moral choices. Lets take it even further. I have a game. I'm going to get all the lifesaving equipment I can, and open a facility. This facility is going to specialize in a particular type of highly asymmetric transactions, and I'm going to do everything I can to inflict the greatest financial harm I can, because gee, the way we keep score mandates I do so to keep the game going. It's a hard realization to come to, but as human beings and individuals, our collective behavior is dependent and a composition our individual choices. And for a not insignificant portion of our population, we have succeeded in allowing it to scrape together a world around itself where maybe it takes a week to explain the technicalities, but it doesn't take a layman more than an a 15 minutes to come to the conclusion there is something seriously wrong. This is one of those cases where rationalization has been left unchecked or unquestioned for far too long. To wrap around to the true meaning underlying your aphorism, which is diluted without context: Don't hate the market participants for participating in the market; but feel free to call out the hypocrisy of dealing in grievous financial harm in trade for necessary care. If you can't question or shame the actions of the ones perpetuating the status quo, you'll never change a blessed thing. Mrs. Bloom in Accounting is still a part of it. Even if she'd rather not think about it.

mrguyorama 8y ago
I agree with most of your post but do you have any evidence that "the knockout game" was an actual thing and not just a few unconnected instances played up with scaremongering?

threatofrain 8y ago

If someone hates both, and that includes you, do you hate back or hate the game that made them hate you? Seems like too much given to a silly one-liner for movies.