So I've been playing this game, Dawn of War, recently, and I came to something of an impass. I started in this valley, and every time I tried to get out of it, bad guys would start raining down on me and slaughtering me at the mouth of the valley. And I tried every strategy I could think of, I tried rushing guys to the mouth, I tried setting up turrets at the mouth, I tried hanging back and waiting for the baddies to come to me, but nothing I tried worked, and I just kept getting slaughtered over and over. I eventually went to bed, defeated, and stared at the ceiling trying to think of some other strategy that would get me out of that damned valley.
And it came to me all of a sudden that humans have this incredible ability to care about pointless shit. It's amazing, really. We can just focus on the dumbest of things. Sport, I mean, the knowledge that a stranger kicked some sphere of leather to a particular location can have grown men in orgasmic apoplexies of joy. Television! Characters that are completely made up, figments of some writer's imagination, can make you laugh and cry and feel real things, even though they're clearly unreal. We care about what happens to them. And yeah, even pixels on a screen, signifying absolutely nothing real, can keep you up and get you involved and have you really, genuinely caring about what those pixels show.
And you know? I think that's what keeps us going- what keeps us alive. If we didn't have this ability to generate artificial importance about things, what would we stick around for? What would matter? How do you draw the line between what "really" matters and something that you've just chosen to matter? You can't (although I'm not contending here that there are not things that actually have importance).
Anyone who lacks, or somehow loses, that capacity, who fails to create care, would probably kill themself, or have insufficient interest in the process of staying alive to do so for very long.
The human mind also seems to want to equate caring with holding. If you care about something you generally want it, as well. I care about food when I am hungry. When I am hungry, I want food. Caring and holding get so mixed up together that we often end up crushing those things we care about, because we want to hold/consume*/possess them, and the more we care about them the tighter we hold on to them, which often runs counter to actually caring, despite our mind constantly assuring us that they're one in the same.
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*You can't have your cake and eat it too, so to speak.
Are you blind?!? Yes? Then how are you reading this then? Gotcha! Anyway, a bloodier version of this rant is also available in audio form here, for the vision impaired.
This is a 
I'd imagine they'd be using a screen reader with speech and/or braille output if they were totally blind, or some other assistive technology if they have an element of useful vision.
But that's not what you wanted to hear, right? ;)
"If we didn't have this ability to generate artificial importance about things, what would we stick around for?"
Are you mad? What about real importance about REAL things? Loved ones, friends etc. And I think you are equating "artificial importance" with "entertainment". They are hugely different, although share similar emotional bonds.
Pix- Not what I wanted to 'hear'? Unless I was using a screen reader with speech output!
Gordon- Sorry, I do apologize and I do want to emphasize I do believe in real, genuine things that are important to care about. I'm sure I made some mild concessions between artificially generated caring and genuine caring, but also believe the distinction is pretty unclear.
I mean, we think we know the people around us and we base our affection for them on that knowledge, but sometimes we don't know them at all, and it turns out that we just care about the impression of them that we have, which may often be a false impression. Hopefully most of the time our impressions are correct and our affection is not misplaced, but I can think of a few squadrillion examples in which it was.
So my point still stands- if we couldn't create care, artificial or not (and the line can't be drawn), we'd have nothing to live for.
OK then.
But do you "create" care? Is it something we can "will" into being?
"I WILL care about X-Factor"
Or is it deeper than that (go on, guess which I think!).
Well, we don't conciously will it into being, but yes, our brain generates it. Like, let's say I start watching X-Factor. I don't want to like it. I don't want to care what happens to the participants. I will literally say: "I couldn't care less."
But you can garuntee that before the episode is over I will care and some small part of me will wonder whatever happened to the contestants. This isn't a choice, and my suddenly caring doesn't make the show suddenly have any real importance- but I suppose the fact that I make a choice to avoid any mention of Big Brother to avoid getting sucked into it, gives me some element of choice.
More importantly, what level is this? I've also just got into Dawn of War - which is a coincedence, and surprising as RTS games annoy the hell out of me.
Actually, I clocked the main campaign (which concludes disappointingly, I must say), I was playing a skirmish mission on 'Harder'- me and two allies vs three AI. Bloody difficult.
Thanks goodness Winter Assault is out.
I think we live in a priveleged time and location. We have the luxury of being able to be bored while other people struggle to survive.
We sit at the top of the heap, having found, I think, that the reward for peace is finding out that nothing actually matters. It's conflict that brings the important things into relief.
I should be doing more to help other people out of conflict, but it's easier to just try and remain entertained.
So shouldn't we be doing more to help bring people IN to conflict? I'm doing my part!
Sorry - that was probably a bit serious, and badly explained.
Basically:
When conflict is resolved we find that it was the conflict that made things important.
Similar to saying 'when something is complete, it is dead' I guess.
Gee, I hope I don't go crazy when I'm old(er).
The good thing is, when nothing else matters, the only thing that's important is a good time!
Unfortunately there're are still people who think things are worth killing/stealing/generally being unpleasant for...
So your saying it's better to have a bitter divorce than a happy marriage because the bitter divorce makes you realise that the happy marriage was important?
That's something of a leap.
I didn't say the conflict was 'better', so no, that's not what I'm saying.
But how does conflict drive you? If you were completely at peace, what reason would you have to DO anything? I try for things because I feel like I'm lacking something. If I didn't feel that way, what would I do?
My answer is - I would try and stay entertained!!
Oh know I agree mostly. If I was to use a word to define the universe it would be conflict. Or contrast.
I'd use two words to define the universe "mostly empty".
(sorry ;) )
Because as the universe evens out in temperature it becomes more ordered, and effectively dies!
So chaos is life!
Uh ... Slow day, sorry.
Mostly empty is a result of conflict.
Dan have you been looking for love in all the wrong places? Instead of Dawn of War try godtower - that'll really fry your noodle. Maybe you'll even begin to care about it ;-)
I so wish you hadn't posted that link! My noodle is fried and toasted.
I'm up the level 10 in Godtower. It's ridiculous.
I've just sussed that there's a hint button too. That would have made it much easier. I was really thrown by level 10 until I found that.
Admittedly, some of the solutions I just don't get.