Contentless Worlds
Are we honestly hungry for more content, or for something else?
This past week, interest has piqued around the idea of “life as game”—namely, life as a giant game of status and recognition. A depressing thought.
Ezra Klein interviewed C. Thi Nguyen on his podcast (episode title: “A Philosophy of Games That Is Really a Philosophy of Life”). And NYT columnist David Brooks also addressed the topic in his recent piece, “Is Life a Story or a Game?” A New York Times double whammy.
(Thank you to a reader of this newsletter for calling my attention to both.)
What’s going on here?
What Klein and Nguyen were really talking about (without using any of this language) are the mimetic games that people play. The games they refer to are the product of mimetic desire and the rituals that form in relationships and in cultures, often to keep conflict or violence at bay. These games are not mere trivialities; in some ways, the games are critical infrastructure.
Their solution, though, is unsatisfactory. What’s the way out fo…