Quitting Video Games: Subjectivity, Objectivity, Responsibility.

if you and i are having a conversation
face to face our sense of left and right will be incompatible but our sense of north and south will be exactly the same which way is left and which way is right is in this sense subjective subjective doesn't mean unreal subjective doesn't mean open to endless debate subjective doesn't even mean there are two or three or five different opinions about it that are equally valid the number one answer i receive today defending adults playing video games is that the value or the enjoyment of playing video games is subjective right now there are two different ways in which in this video i'm going to argue this is bad and misleading and wrong these aren't the only two ways in which this is bad and misleading and wrong by the way guys one is on the tiny scale of you and i as individuals and the other is on the larger scale of a society and society might just be a few dozen people or we might be talking about millions of people all right will it make you happy personally if you can inject yourself with testosterone become stronger and win an athletic competition let's say it's wrestling if you personally can use testosterone and steroids and be stronger and maybe more beautiful or more physically impressive and then you can win the wrestling competition nobody else is using testosterone and steroids just you is that good for you is that good for your personal utility for your well-being for your happiness your benefit it's not the only consideration we have to scale it up and ask what's better for this tiny society of maybe just a few dozen people who actually compete in this sports league who compete in this wrestling league whatever it may be all right is it good for them is it good for us as a group if instead of competing on skill people start competing on the basis of who can take the most steroids no even if it's good for you as an individual when you just scale it up to consider the few dozen people you're competing with and they're not your enemies they're your colleagues they're your contemporaries right it's bad for everyone including you why because when all of your competitions start doing it when everyone else is injecting themselves with testosterone and steroids now you've got to inject yourself with more and more and more in order to compete you've got to push yourself up to that limit or maybe you're going to die just to stay relevant just to stay in the same league that they're in all right beauty pageants beauty competitions should you allow plastic surgery what's the competition supposed to be about is it supposed to be about who can get the most plastic surgery if you allow the contestants to have plastic surgery they have a similar pattern we have a similar problem but this isn't the only level on which we can scale up this problem when you're looking at a society of millions who are you celebrating as the world wrestling champion the greatest cheater the greatest drug abuser that's a problem for us all not just the people in the competition who are you celebrating as the beauty pageant queen the greatest science experiment the woman who was willing to subject herself to the surgeon's knife and injecting all kinds of drugs that are in their way comparable to steroids what have you right if you open that door if you allow that these concepts of like good happiness enjoyment utility right they don't just apply in this self-centered short-term way self-centered short-term thinking is evil you just thinking about what benefits you what makes you happy right now whether it's using drugs or getting plastic surgery or playing video games that is in brief an evil way of thinking you know what's good you know what's better not just thinking about yourself thinking about your family thinking about that medium-sized unit the other people who play in your league thinking about the society of millions not just thinking short-term not just thinking about what's going to make me happy today or in the next two hours but thinking about what kind of person i aspire to become over the next 10 years and then what kind of work and what kind of recreation is going to help me become that person right this this it doesn't take a genius to figure this stuff out it really doesn't i i don't even think it requires a person of average intelligence but in our generation people have been inculcated with this notion that morality is something imposed upon you by authority figures like the church the mosque and that you live to rebel against and so people don't rehearse don't practice they become profoundly unfamiliar with this type of ever so simple ethical thinking reasoning out for themselves why and in what sense playing video games is wrong the distinction between subjective and objective i've had to say to people who debated with me sincerely they were really willing to re-evaluate what they've been doing with their lives in the past and the present and looking into the future so people came to me and talking on the internet they're willing to consider the option of quitting video games now and forever but it seems like the thing they can't get over is this idea that even if all of my arguments are valid even if i have a good point they can recognize it they can recognize that this would make them into a better person if they stop playing video games and start doing anything more productive with their time they can't get over this thought-terminating cliche that after all it's all just subjective all right the difference between left and right is subjective the difference between good and evil is subjective and i'll tell you something directly from experience i have used cocaine once in my life whether or not you consider the effects of cocaine pleasant or unpleasant even that is subjective i ca i can't believe that anyone is stupid enough to think that using cocaine makes them happy i can't believe just the chemical sensation in your body in your brain i can't believe people think that is pleasant or enjoyable or is in any way related to happiness but apparently i'm in a tiny tiny minority of people right and when i watch someone playing a stupid repetitive video game where they walk around and shoot people in the head again and again and again i also i find myself in a similar state of disbelief subjectively i can't believe people think this is enjoyable people think this is happiness but they do i'm evidently in a very small minority who has this kind of detachment where i can reevaluate these things subjectively okay the question of what is a great work of art is subjective that doesn't mean there's no important difference between a great work of art and a terrible one between a successful film and an unsuccessful one between a painting that's a recognized masterpiece and a painting that was a flop fill in the blank yes yes these things are subjective but what you have to recognize is that the whole world of important decisions you are going to make in your life is within that subjective realm we're not debating the speed of light we're not debating the speed of sound we're debating what kind of person you want to be and what you're willing to sacrifice what you're willing to do to get there it's all subjective the whole question of a meaningful life the whole the whole question of whether you are a hero or a villain in your own imagination and in how others perceive you yes it's subjective and there's always going to be a disconnection between the subjective and the objective that way we can write out a chemical formula for what cocaine is and we can chart out the etiology step by step of its effects on the brain its effects on the nervous system and so on but the subjective judgment whether this is pleasure or pain enjoyable or horrible whether this is good and evil that's the meaningful question it's utterly subjective whether it's good for me right now thinking selfishly thinking short term about just the next few hours subjective tremendously meaningful whether or not it's good for my family what's it gonna mean for my daughter if i start using cocaine just on the weekends oh it's not an addiction it's not a habit it's just once in a while it's just on special occasions what's that going to mean for my daughter for my wife for whoever it is i have around me right what's it going to mean for my team my league the few dozen people who are my colleagues in contemporary scale it up what's it gonna mean for your society as a whole think it through at every level and don't just think short term the distinction between subjective and objective this is child's play don't let this kind of excuse become for you a thought-terminating cliche