Let me share a story that admits a blind
spot I've had. But for some background
first, let me share with you a story of
someone else's blind spot. Back in the
before times, when I was less old, the
zeitgeist at the time was worrying about
plastic pollution. Specifically, a big
offender is plastic straws. Like most
forever chemicals, they don't decompose.
They just litter the oceans. Given their
shape and density, they get blown around
by air a lot. So, they tend to
accidentally escape containment efforts.
It's not an ideal situation. I guess
there was a viral video showing how it's
horrific for sea turtles.
This is the background information for
local businesses informing us of how
admirable they are because they switch
from plastic straws to paper. Following
that, there were memes about paper
straws dissolving before people can
finish their drinks. Apparently, some
people order a beverage and stare at it
for multiple hours. I had a friend at
the time who informed me of how much
smarter he was than these people by
realizing you could just not use a
straw. Sure,
but the point of a straw is to work
around ice cubes. Him and his girlfriend
were amused that I wanted to buy metal
drinking straws. In response to their
derision, I said, "Yeah, save the sea
turtles."
My then friend was incredulous that I
would spend money for a cause like this.
I specified, "It's not that I feel bad.
It's that I recognize the moral
obligation." He attempted to correct me
viz a viz my thought process. He said that a
sense of morality is exactly that
feeling of guilt, which he then assured
me I was feeling. At the time, I was
mildly horrified that he couldn't fathom
the difference. The true horror is that
I'm pretty sure most people can't
disentangle these concepts in their
minds. So, once you become desensitized
to the feeling of guilt, there's nothing
left to guide you. Every pretentious
video essayist will eventually talk about
Spec Ops: The Line and/or Disco Elysium
at some point. Now, let me share with
you a story of my own blind spot. When I
first saw the list of skills, I was
immediately drawn to one. I figured,
clearly, it's the best. If the game is
good, surely this one skill will be the
one that matters the most. And with
enough of it, you can compensate for the
rest or render them entirely obsolete.
...other than the physical ones, of course.
Fortunately, I've been able to ask
others. A therapist once told me she
thought that of Empathy. I figured it
was possible she was performing what is
expected of her rather than being
genuine.
Then an artist told me she was
immediately drawn to Inland Empire.
Three data points isn't definitive, but
we can work with it. I hold the thesis.
A person correlates with a signature
skill in Disco Elysium. Much like that one
expired card game has player archetypes
of Spike, Johnny, Timmy, and Vorthos.
There are appreciable differences that a
real person tends to gravitate toward
reflecting their own personality and
perspective on life. If we think of life
as a game where you're the character,
most players seem to have chosen a
signature skill.
Mine is logic, of course. Surely you saw
this coming. It couldn't possibly be
anything else.
But then... maybe you didn't. It's obvious
to me what's happening in my skull, but
I reside here. I don't know how alien
you find it. I've only recently heard
Jordan Peterson argue.
>> How do they regard-How do they regard
Mary?
>> Why are you asking me that?
>> Because you're a Christian.
You say that I haven't claimed that.
>> Irritating sophistry, a style of
so-called debate for those who aren't
seeking to build consensus, just arguing
as a verbal dominance struggle.
My sister argues the same way. She has
one principle, one value: power, for her.
So when she thinks she's constructed an
argument that will put her on top, her
one question is the only question to be
answered, no matter how absurd.
Conversely, if I ask her any question in
the slightest, she refuses to answer. I
swear I could ask her what color the sky
is, and she'd produce a thousand words
of verbal diarrhea, ending with her
getting on her soap box and proclaiming
some cause at me. But at no point would
the word blue come up. There was a time
she recommended me to one of her
business partners. When I asked for
literally any information at all about
this guy, she lectured me on how it's
disrespectful to question her. It's
maddening. There's a meme from tumblr.
Some children's hospital redecorated.
For some reason, they painted the floors
red. It looks like a trail of blood. A
few tumblrinas discussed.
Some talked about the color theory of
red. I imagine for the express purpose
of signaling that they're smarter than
everyone else. I imagine trying to
convince primarily themselves. The rest
told them to open their goddamn eyes, it
looks like a trail of blood.
This is my favorite book. Here's
a bit from it. The list above- that's
this one; a publication, a newspaper,
all the way down to a very specific one.
>> The list above seems to be a hierarchy
of generality. The top being a very
broad conceptual category, the bottom
some very humble particular thing
located in space and time. Our thought
makes use of an ingenious principle
which might be called the prototype
principle.
The most specific event can serve as a
general example of a class of events.
Everyone knows that specific events have
a vividness which imprints them so
strongly on the memory that they can
later be used as models for other events
which are like them in some way. Thus,
in each specific event, there is the
germ of a whole class of similar events.
So, you experience an example, then
distill its traits and refine the
category to something more useful that
better reflects the rest of the world.
This is why I would love to push the
term Wolfendoom for that genre.
Anyway, Disco Elysium. If you're not
familiar, well... turn this video off and
go play it, but a quick rundown of some
relevant information. This is truly a
game where you build a character in a
realistic way. You wake up with amnesia.
It takes a long time to learn your name
(Harry), and your skills are talking to
you as though they're someone else's
voice in your head. They even talk to
each other sometimes.
They all have a personality and dictate
yours. Or rather, the real you chooses
to nurture the ones it's attracted to
initially. Kind of like, "inside you there
are two wolves", but... 24.
>> I'm bursting at the seams.
Meanwhile, ever see a 16 mm film of your treasured
memories burn? That's happening to the
universe.
Let's look at Half Light. The game
describes what it is, your fight-
or-flight response. It describes the sort
of person who really likes it; high-
strung people, shoot now, ask questions
later, etc. What's fascinating about
Disco Elysium is that it has a cynical
view of the concept of a skill. In D&D
or almost every other game that has a
way to increase skills and/or
attributes, if you can raise a skill
from n to n+1, that is better. In
Disco Elysium, there's such a thing as
being too good at a skill. So,
continuing to look at Half Light, if you
don't have enough of it, you don't
really have a survival instinct. But if
you have too much of it, you're living
your entire life right at the boiling
point, which is not ideal either.
Disco Elysium also has lots of items
that give small boosts to these skills
with a description about the item.
Usually also justifying why it affects
your skills. Here's some itchy pants.
Suffering the itchiness all the time
puts you on edge which is a detriment to
your Composure but a benefit to your
Half Light.
Let's take a moment to appreciate that
all the skills have, and I cannot
understate this, *works of art* to
represent them.
Now, let's go meet Cuno.
>> He's almost exquisite in his ugliness,
like a gremlin.
>> This is Cuno, an edgy child
self-medicating for the trauma of his
father's abuse with some kind of
stimulant.
Cuno is the apex of Half Light. It's no
wonder that Harry thinks of Half Light in
terms of being exemplified by Cuno,
or as Hofstadter phrased it, prototyped. And
that's why the portrait for Half Light,
Harry's mental image of the concept,
looks so much like the portrait for
Cuno. Or maybe I should say that the
other way around. But that's been
thoroughly covered already. I'm sure
every Disco fan has noticed this and
told you about it. Enter YouTuber Sky
Mistless. She matches up all of the
skills to their in-game exemplar. How
sick is that? So, who is the exemplar
for Logic? >> YOUR BODY BETRAYS YOUR
DEGENERACY.
>> How could this happen? How is the
exemplar of logic the mega racist?
Surely neither Sky nor ZA/UM thinks
racial bias is logical. Logic is the
opposite of bias, obviously. And yet,
it's undeniable, isn't it? There's
another sign. One of the items to boost
your logic is a conical hat. +1
logic. Why do you think these, and indeed
most hats, were invented? Keeps the sun
out of your eyes. Plus, this one is made
from straws. Sounds way better for the
environment than polyester or whatever,
but there's more data left. The setting
of the game is not Earth, but the same
insensitive elements are at play there.
Harry is a white guy. This is decidedly
not a hat for a white guy.
Maybe Encyclopedia could have told us
about specific events. Maybe Empathy
would have let us intuit it the offense
people would suffer.
>> The implication of that skill reflects
Measurehead's essence in a grotesque
irony. Being logical does not make one
right.
>> All the skill exemplars represent being
in too deep. Cuno's Half Light is easily
outmaneuvered by the adult in the room.
Garte as Volition gets no part in any of
the interesting stuff. I'm pretty sure
there's no way for you to pay him what
you owe. So, he's been manipulated into
doing what you want for your benefit
instead of his own. The game says that
too much logic will cause you to lose
yourself in an ivory tower, wrapped up
in some chain of reasoning that
completely ignores what's in front of
you. The logical thing to do is fit more
information into your theory of the
world. Maybe with a sufficiently galaxy-brained
intellect, sufficient logic could solve
everything, including morality.
Realistically, just remember to open
your eyes every so often, or you might
turn into a color theorist.