https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=K6nZO1o0S2s
You’ve seen bullseyes, classical arrow, you know, archery bullseyes. I think they’re red in the middle usually, right? And then there’s a variety of coloured circles around them. Maybe the whole bullseye is this big. And you’re supposed to hit the bullseye, but the closer you get to the centre, the better. But at least you could hit part of it, that would be good, you know. And you’re supposed to stand back and pull your arrow back and aim. And so, and that’s an acting out of something. It’s an acting out of the necessity of having an aim and taking your best shot. Right? That’s what makes it a sport. Now, and if you think about that, most of our sports are like that. Right? Soccer’s like that, rugby’s like that, basketball’s like that, hockey’s like that. Almost all team sports involve some sort of projectile going to some sort of target. And usually people organise themselves into hierarchies, two of them, because there’s two teams, and then they compete and cooperate to get the projectile in the target. And for some reason, we think that’s really cool. Right? Well, look, it’s worth thinking through deeply. It’s like, you’ll spend a lot of money on that opportunity to go in Toronto. You can’t buy NHL tickets for the Maple Leafs. They’re unbelievably expensive and they’ve been sold out forever, even though the damn team hasn’t won a championship since like 1968. Doesn’t matter. People will spend a fortune to go sit in an arena, like a long way away from the action. And there’s these guys out there and they’re tough and they’re fast, and they’re fighting with this little black frozen disc, and they’re trying to get it in a net while someone is trying to stop. It’s completely bloody absurd. And yet people are thrilled about it. They’re thrilled and they’ll pay for it. Right? They don’t have to be dragged there kicking and screaming like they line up. It’s, oh, God, a hockey game. Thank God. And they’ll wear the jerseys. And then some character who’s put in his $10,000 does this beautiful move and puts in a goal in some manner that’s technically impossible. And everybody leaps to their feet and they just have a fit of joy. And you think, what in the world is going on with that? It’s like you’re happier when that happens than you were when you got married. It’s like you don’t see people doing that when they’re… And it’s not everybody when you get married and everybody stands up and has a little like a 10 minute fit and hugs strangers and then goes out and drinks a dozen beer and has a riot and tears down stores. It’s like, no, no, but a good goal, that’ll do it. I think Guatemala and Ecuador went to war over a soccer game, literally. So, and let’s not assume we’re so stupid, you know, even though we are. Let’s not assume it. There’s something behind this. It’s like we really like to see people take careful aim and hit the target. And we really like to see them cooperate and compete in an expert manner to do that. And we really like to see them do that in a way that stretches their ability beyond what we would normally be able to see, right? Because it’s nice to go to a competent display of athletics. But now and then you go, you see these like soccer goals on YouTube where these crazy characters, you know, they flip around in the air and they’re like eight feet off the ground, completely backwards. And they kick the ball four feet to the side of the goalie. It’s just impossible. Like they’re a hundred yards away and it’s perfect. And you think right on, that’s what a human being is like. And you’re not really like that because you couldn’t do it. But you are human and conceivably you could do something like that. And so it’s a nice display of that potential for us to hit the damn target, right? So then the question is, well, what’s the target? And that’s the question because that’s the same question as what’s the meaning? And so, OK, so here’s my target. Let’s say it’s do a personal unpacking of my value system, at least at least in part. So I’m a writer and I’m a writer and a researcher and a clinician. And and and a professor. So those things may be roughly in that order. And so that’s that’s my claim to my position in the social hierarchy. And, you know, the claim is something like I’m competent at that. It’s worthwhile. Therefore, I’m reasonably entitled by the rules of the game to the privileges and statuses that are associated with that position. Right. As long as I’m competent. So there’s a match between social demand and my ability. And as long as I’m playing the game properly, then I’m safe. That’s what’s keeping my emotions regulated. It’s not my internal regulation. It’s the fact that I can do what I say I can do and everyone else agrees and people value that and that keeps me secure. That’s also why I don’t want too much social upheaval, you know, because I might end up with the same skill set in a society that doesn’t value those skills. And then well, then what? Then I’m done. So I want there to be an isomorphism between my internal hierarchy of perceptual value and the social structure itself. You know, and so this is also partly why radical claims of multiculturalism are wrong. Because at the base of things, we need to be playing a unified game so that everybody knows what everybody else is up to. Doesn’t mean that diversity of opinion isn’t useful because now and then the collective claim is going to be wrong and need to be updated. And so you need some strange people around creative people, generally speaking, who will, you know, take things in a direction that’s novel to update. But roughly speaking, we want everybody nested in the same game and then maybe above that, playing some different games. And we need that because it’s the only way we can orient ourselves in the world. It’s the only way we can keep a match between our expectations and our skills and our desires and what’s actually expected of us in the world. There’s nothing that’s more harmful than for you to play the game straight, right? To do what you’re supposed to do, to be a good person and then to be punished for it instead of rewarded. Very disheartening. You want what you think to be good and right to also be rewarded by the world in that manner. And that means the structures have to be the social structure and the psychological structure have to match. And part of the reason that we protect our cultures is so that we can protect the match between our psychological structures and our social structures and keep ourselves oriented, moving forward in the world with some positive emotion and not terrified out of our skulls. It’s crucially important. It’s why we’ll fight to protect what we’ve built. It’s the game we understand. And it’s not something that can just be arbitrarily shifted or changed. And that’s partly because the aim isn’t arbitrary. The aim isn’t arbitrary. This is the problem with the postmodernists and the moral relativists. They don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. They’re a hundred years out of date. They’ve got it wrong.