The irony

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Friday, June 07, 2013, 18:41 (4197 days ago) @ RaichuKFM

I'm late to this, and I'm not gonna try to rekindle an argument, I just have something to say. I, on a fundamental level, see no real difference between doing something you want to because you were raised to think you wanted it, and something you "really" want to do. To me, they are both something you want to do. Because, you have a point that you can't tell which is which easily. But, what does that wind up mattering?

Because things you want because you have been taught or conditioned to want them may not be what's best for you, nor something you would actually want if you had never been conditioned or taught to want it in the first place.

A woman is submissive to her husband. You ask her why. She says she wishes to be, because making him happy makes her happy. She really wants it, and really does get pleasure from this. Is this okay? Does it end up mattering?

Just because something comes from outside of you doesn't mean it isn't a facet of the "real" you, because otherwise our concepts of personality wouldn't reflect someone's actual personality. Most people get ideas placed into their heads their whole life, and they are obviously going to be changed by them. So whenever someone states that only some wants are "real" and not just constructs, I can't help but perceive it as arbitrary and false distinctions.

I'm sorry, but I don't think I disputed that.

The other thing I want to say is that I don't see the issue with playing games to have fun.

I don't either! I do it all the time and love it!

First, how does ubiquity make something worse? I honestly don't get where you're coming from on the "everywhere becomes nowhere" thing.

To see a movie in 1941, you had to go to a theatre. It was a special place. Now you can watch a movie anywhere. So now everywhere has that property. But if everything has that property, there are no special places anymore. Everywhere becomes nowhere.

I also don't see this "Matrix" as inherently bad; everyone seems to have assumed it is, but I don't see why. It isn't an artificially constructed reality like its namesake, it is just... heck, it just seems like you're calling the influence of media "The Matrix".

Not just the media, but tradition, religion, values, political correctness, etc.