Back in like 2008 I was playing the single player campaign for the first COD: Modern Warfare and I almost failed the first mission because I didn’t want to kill noncombatants on a boat.
Meanwhile in 2025 that’s what our military is doing these days in Venezuelan waters.
Hey to be fair “civilian collateral” has been a favorite pass-time of the US military long before 2025.
The opposite also applies. If there’s no actual power or reward or suffering, what’s the point of being bad?
It’s scary how much of the population views moral problems by “what’s in it for me and what are the consequences”
Very little altruism
I’ve had religious people ask me (am atheist) “without God what is stopping you from being evil?” and holy shit, I can’t believe people think like that
That and the “without the Bible, how do you know what’s right or wrong” crowd. They have become so externally reliant on direction that they dont even have an independent sense of morality anymore. Also, they must think, in turn, that that non-Christian cultures and people are inherently amoral or immoral. The irony.
A good answer is “I rape and murder exactly as much as I want to, which is none. If eternal hellfire is the only think keeping you from doing those things then I hope you never lose your faith.”
This is a real problem we’re facing.
It’s part of the overarching authoritarian worldview, that fear of consequences from someone above you on the food chain is the primary motivation for anyone to be “good”.
The problem comes from it being extremely time consuming to explain how “being good” benefits you personally, even if all possibility of consequences are removed. Essentially you have to explain the entire concept of the word “honor” to them. What are the benefits of being honorable, and how do these benefits (for you personally) outweigh the benefits of being dishonorable?
But if someone wasn’t raised that way, then it really does need to be explained to them. Otherwise it’s unrealistic to expect them to just somehow figure it out for themselves.
edit for grammar
edit2: To elaborate a little bit, the benefit of honor boils down to efficiency and the advantages of cooperation. People can perceive patterns, and when someone is dishonorable, even if people won’t come attack them somehow, they’ll still be reluctant to ever cooperate with that person. An honorable person thus has far more resources from their community that they can draw on in the pursuit of their own personal goals. In addition, it simplifies their lives. Instead of having to, say, track the lies you’ve told so you don’t mess up and create inconsistencies, if you live honorably you free up all that energy to devote to your goals in other ways.
Note, my summary argument is not overly compelling just on its own. I had to boil it down too much to make it a reasonable length. You need many examples, or preferably actual life experience on how it works, for the argument to actually become somewhat convincing.
I don’t need any benefit though, I just like being good
Personal preference is fine too. For many people, though, they will require a personal benefit. They won’t just enjoy it. Especially if they see other people who aren’t good and are doing better than them.
Everyone needs to watch the 90s movie Clifford, it explains this awesomely. Clifford is an annoying and manipulative brat who only cares about one thing. He gets it, and then he decides that he’d rather be well behaved, because he wants people to like him.
Modern conservatism necessitates that society is a zero sum game. And we are seeing exactly how that plays out in the US.
If you can’t let your dark-side out to play in a safe environment, you risk not knowing it well enough to keep it coming out in ways you didn’t plan for.
Reference : The majority of murder and violent crime.
Some people just genuinely don’t have those kinds of dark impulses and actually are repulsed to take such actions even in a simulated environment. But I’ll grant you, non-destructive, safe outlets for those impulses and frustrations is, indeed, healthier than the alternative.
I assure you everyone has them. There’s an abundance of evidence for this, no one is above the possibility of then coming out in the right circumstances.
Are you suggesting murders and violent crime would be reduced if the perpetrators had s safe outlet for this?
I’m not sure I believe that. I’d guess most murder and violent crime in the US is gang related. Those people have plenty of opportunity to play GTA and COD as a safe outlet. I think it has more to do with the environment they grow up in, and the culture it fosters. Which mainly relates to poverty and lack of opportunity.
Similarly, cops who abuse their power have access to the same games and media.
Some will argue it’s the games and media that contribute to causing this, but I’m not sure I believe that either. That always seemed a bit pearl clutchy.
Well, my suggestion is a bit more complex than that!
I’m talking about using outlets as ways to become familiar with our darkness so we can make informed choices about how it shows up in the world.
A process a lot more complex than “just play GTA”
There’s a surprise quick time event in Assassin’s Creed 2 where Leonardo Da Vinci goes in for a hug, and if you don’t press X reasonably quickly he pulls back looking a little bummed out.
I ripped my power cord out of the wall to make sure it didn’t save,
your first instinct for missing a hug from a completely fake video game character was to risk permanent damage to expensive hardware? seek help
Well hugging Leonardo DaVinci sounds like the experience of a lifetime.
Plus: to be(come) an asshole is, respectively would be a very huge consequence in my book.
Me in my second run through KCD2: “I’m gonna make Henry a real bastard this time.”
Ignatius the Knacker: “Kill that dog.”
Me: “Noooooooo!”
