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A pernicious excitement to learn and play chess has spread all over the country, and numerous clubs for practicing this game have been formed in cities and vill
by helloplanets 2y ago
A pernicious excitement to learn and play chess has spread all over the country, and numerous clubs for practicing this game have been formed in cities and villages…chess is a mere amusement of a very inferior character, which robs the mind of valuable time that might be devoted to nobler acquirements … they require out-door exercises–not this sort of mental gladiatorship.
A game of chess does not add a single new fact to the mind; it does not excite a single beautiful thought; nor does it serve a single purpose for polishing and improving the nobler faculties.
Scientific American, July, 1858
[0]: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/19th-century-concern-trollingchess-mere-amusement-very-inferior-character-180953281/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/19th-century-conce...
- kubb 2y agoI kind of agree. Chess sucks big time, especially played online. Playing with your grandpa in the park is OK.
- ffsm8 2y ago[flagged]
- mikub 2y agoWhy does he have to be bad at chess if he doesn't like playing online? Also I think "Playing with your grandpa." was just a metaphor for, playing with people you like. Some people just play games to have fun, you know, not everything has to be a competition.
- ffsm8 2y agoBecause their argument wasn't "competitive gameplay is terrible for society", but "chess is bad". But even if it was the former argument: that's unquestionably false too. Just look at professional sports like soccer or Basketball. Surely you're not going to argue that this is bad...? Because that's fundamentally the same, just on a different topic
- Aeolun 2y agoAside from much more variables in Starcraft and co?
- mikub 2y agoWhich is not really wrong. Chess can be fun, but I always thought it is pretty fascinating that the chess champions are viewed by the media as some kind of genius. I mean, it's just a game, not more but also not less.
- portaouflop 2y agoLife is a game no more no less. If you can be a champion at anything you deserve recognition - just look at the people lauded for chugging dozens of hot dogs
- Aeolun 2y agoTo be fair, I do not understand how someone can gobble up food so quickly and not throw up. It really is amazing in a sense.
- FrustratedMonky 2y ago"Life is a game no more no less." Exactly. So take a game AI from Deep Mind, link it to some AI that can build a world model, categorize images, put it in a robot, maybe an LLM so it can talk to you, give it some goals. See what happens.
- skeeter2020 2y agoLauded as champions or freaks? I'm on the side that believes there IS bad publicity... Life can look like a game, but to think it is nothing more betrays just how easy you have it.
- tankenmate 2y agoBut playing Chess at any serious level (more than a couple hours a week) has some non Chess side effects; it teaches you to examine your own behaviour, it teaches you that even if you're very good you can still lose (and hopefully how to lose well), and it teaches you that the other side gets a vote (get a turn, no action happens in a vacuum). All of which are very valuable life lessons.
- 2y ago
- scandox 2y agoLenin eventually took the same view - that chess was distracting him from a higher purpose. Perhaps a harmless game would have been a better use of his time.
- somedude895 2y agoI much prefer people amuse themselves to death than they think and theorize themselves- (or others, in the case of many late 19th and early 20th century intellectuals) to death.
- renanoliveira0 2y agoAt what point did this become a valid and legitimate issue? Why do we feel the need to prefer or not prefer what others do with their time? Isn’t that something that concerns only the person and their own life, which really shouldn’t concern us at all? I think your point really highlights this ethical mindset that has become so prominent today, especially with the rise of the internet.
- nuancebydefault 2y agoThey did not mean 'prefer' in the way you interpret it. They mean 'I believe the world would be better if...' rather than 'I'd choose for others to behave like...'
- TacticalCoder 2y ago> Lenin eventually took the same view - that chess was distracting him from a higher purpose The world would have been a better place had he kept playing chess then.
- essentia0 2y agoThe world where nothing ever happens
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Topfi 2y agoAnother more historic example in the same mold: >>If men learn [to read], it will implant forgetfulness in their souls. They will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks.<< Plato, 400-300 BC Basically, learning to read and write would lead to an overreliance and provide only a "semblance of wisdom", rather than "true wisdom". [0] https://fs.blog/an-old-argument-against-writing/ https://fs.blog/an-old-argument-against-writing/
- wouldbecouldbe 2y agoHe wasn’t wrong; we did lose the skill for memorising large oral works. He just missed the upside.
- twelve40 2y agohaha the man probably would have been absolutely devastated to learn that his posterity has degenerated to the point of using Google while coding... or god forbid, interviewing.
- brvsft 2y agoI don't know that much about literacy rates and social competition in ancient Greece, but I suspect it may have been in Plato's personal interests that others remain illiterate.
- diego_sandoval 2y agoIf this man knew TikTok, he'd have a stroke.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- badpun 2y agoThere was some chess prodigy who, in his teens, was already winning against most champions, and who in his early twenties abandoned chess altogether, citing it a "waste of life".
- nick0garvey 2y agoMorphy, one of the greatest players of all time, is famous for this. "The ability to play chess is the sign of a gentleman. The ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life."
- llamaimperative 2y agoIs this meant to be an analog to Postman’s argument? Because it isn’t. His argument doesn’t really have a moral bent to it. It’s a very practical argument that different mediums are capable of carrying different messages.
- bumby 2y agoI read it as a counter to Postman’s citing Huxley that society is becoming enamored with the superficial (ie the ignoble) pursuits. I read the OP as effectively saying “who is to say what is noble vs trivial, considering it varies in societal context.” 170 years ago, people may have thought chess was superficial. I think now, maybe it would be considered a more noble pursuit. Or, maybe the OP was saying it’s a constant devolving towards the increasingly trivial.
- brvsft 2y agoChess is a superficial pursuit, especially today, because it became a meme due to a Netflix television show. Not that I care. People can pursue whatever they want superficially. And I have plenty of my own superficial pursuits.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- carlosjobim 2y agoCouldn't agree more with that quote. It is completely correct.