Sep 16, 2023·edited Sep 16, 2023Liked by 🈲 Kai Chang - Author
Hi K.C.
Never having been into gaming, I had to look up the acronym NPC, but after doing so, thought your essay did a pretty good job of looking at social dynamics. Saving this essay for future reference.
You might already be familiar with these, but a book that came to mind which you might enjoy is Eric Hoffer's "The True Believer", and a number of books about Cluster B personality types, particularly A. Lobascewski's "Political Ponerology: The Science of Evil, Pyschopathy, and the Origins of the Totalitarian State".
It's good to remember that acronyms which taken for granted in one world (like NPC, which is well-known among gamers) is an alien concept for others outside that world.
I'm familiar with the True Believer! Unfamiliar with Lobascewski's work, thank you for that very specific recommendation I shall look it up and see how it relates.
Thanks for the quick reply K.C. Just turned 68, and as a professional linguist, I am sometimes aghast at how distant I am from sub-cultures within my own native language. Much thanks for helping to bridge that gap.
The Lobaczewski book is a bit of a slog, but I thought it pertinent regarding the extreme dark end of your analysis of NPCs. Basically, he is saying the dark-triad skeletons in the family closet (the pathological narcissists, machiavellian opportunists, and morphologically defined psychopaths ... though I would add 'sadism' to that trio), are a fractal of what happens on the world stage. I like the book because unlike Desmet's more popular Mass Formation Psychosis, Lobaczewski identifies a small but salient proportion of people driving the dysfuntional social dynamics, and holds them responsible.
Something I would add to that book is the advantage of empathy-driven behavior in families and small communities, and the limits of scaling empathy, perhaps even the impossibility, when exceeding Dunbar's number. In large populations, we are left with either some kind of quasi-empathy through the arts, deception through faux empathy, or no empathy at all ... merely fear-driven herd mentality, buttressed by habit, laws, and algorithms.
Lots more to say on the above, but I'm in this good fight for the long-haul. Now spending a lot of time and resources dissecting the sociopathic behavior behind the burning of Lahaina. As a species, we have not morally progressed since the stone age, and perhaps are incapable of doing so.
Still, cheers in the good fight of this forever war of humanity against its own worst nature.
This is great. I’m going to give it a lot of thought. I sometimes mentally frame myself as a ‘nobody’ to take a self-centred focus away (briefly). Also I’m interested in reading people and although not as strong on some of the positive attributes you mentioned I have observed that this makes my NPC’s like me and then I usually like them in return.
Hey at least you have James Corbet as a local NPC!
Hi K.C.
Never having been into gaming, I had to look up the acronym NPC, but after doing so, thought your essay did a pretty good job of looking at social dynamics. Saving this essay for future reference.
You might already be familiar with these, but a book that came to mind which you might enjoy is Eric Hoffer's "The True Believer", and a number of books about Cluster B personality types, particularly A. Lobascewski's "Political Ponerology: The Science of Evil, Pyschopathy, and the Origins of the Totalitarian State".
Cheers from Japan .
It's good to remember that acronyms which taken for granted in one world (like NPC, which is well-known among gamers) is an alien concept for others outside that world.
I'm familiar with the True Believer! Unfamiliar with Lobascewski's work, thank you for that very specific recommendation I shall look it up and see how it relates.
Appreciate your feedback! <3
Thanks for the quick reply K.C. Just turned 68, and as a professional linguist, I am sometimes aghast at how distant I am from sub-cultures within my own native language. Much thanks for helping to bridge that gap.
The Lobaczewski book is a bit of a slog, but I thought it pertinent regarding the extreme dark end of your analysis of NPCs. Basically, he is saying the dark-triad skeletons in the family closet (the pathological narcissists, machiavellian opportunists, and morphologically defined psychopaths ... though I would add 'sadism' to that trio), are a fractal of what happens on the world stage. I like the book because unlike Desmet's more popular Mass Formation Psychosis, Lobaczewski identifies a small but salient proportion of people driving the dysfuntional social dynamics, and holds them responsible.
Something I would add to that book is the advantage of empathy-driven behavior in families and small communities, and the limits of scaling empathy, perhaps even the impossibility, when exceeding Dunbar's number. In large populations, we are left with either some kind of quasi-empathy through the arts, deception through faux empathy, or no empathy at all ... merely fear-driven herd mentality, buttressed by habit, laws, and algorithms.
Lots more to say on the above, but I'm in this good fight for the long-haul. Now spending a lot of time and resources dissecting the sociopathic behavior behind the burning of Lahaina. As a species, we have not morally progressed since the stone age, and perhaps are incapable of doing so.
Still, cheers in the good fight of this forever war of humanity against its own worst nature.
steve
Brilliant comment bro
Thanks TG!
Finding an occasional like-minded soul is just about my final remaining solace.
Cheers from Japan.
This is great. I’m going to give it a lot of thought. I sometimes mentally frame myself as a ‘nobody’ to take a self-centred focus away (briefly). Also I’m interested in reading people and although not as strong on some of the positive attributes you mentioned I have observed that this makes my NPC’s like me and then I usually like them in return.