$O$ TEXT: 682-2-HELP-ME Menu
Choose your path

Posted by Tug Brice on 17 Mar. 2020

Share on social media

Terry Pratchett is one of my favorite authors, and if I’m being honest, a big influence on my life. I’d be lying if I said his Discworld books didn’t have a huge effect on how I view the world. Although his books are ostensibly comedic, they all contain deep insights into the human condition. I’m not here to review his books, although I recommend them heartily to anyone who listens. Instead, I want to address one of the reoccurring themes in his writing.

Something that Pratchett, through his characters, said many times in many books is that a person by themselves isn’t fully human. In order to be human, we need other humans. We need to rub shoulders with others, interact with them, to be part of society. Humans are social creatures, and by ourselves, we aren’t human. Society is what makes us who we are.

But, there’s a downside to that. As we go throughout our lives, bouncing off each other, we get a bit… grubby. It takes an exceptionally strong person not to take the occasional shortcut, or to think badly of someone else when things don’t quite go the way they want. Society makes us human, but it also rubs off the shine. Very few people are inherently bad, but it doesn’t take an evil person to commit everyday misdeeds. That’s also part of being human. For every angel whispering, there’s a devil to match.

However, something interesting follows. If there are very few truly evil people, that means that most people are inherently good. And this can be tested and proven. In the 2000s, there was a trend with video games of giving players free choice. The way this was usually implemented was through a morality system. Players could be good, evil, or somewhere in the middle. Many different games implemented this kind of system. And as academics are wont to do, there were studies done on these types of games. 

Those studies found that, even in the absence of any witnesses or real consequences, the overwhelming majority of players chose good paths. In fact, it was such an overwhelming majority that in gamer circles, it became a meme. Multiple individual humans, unwatched by anyone, playing a game for fun where there are no consequences to anyone, chose a good path because they didn’t want to be mean to make belief people. And they did it over and over and over again. 

It is easy for society to make us dirty. To be tempted to take shortcuts or indulge in little cruelties. But remember that we are almost all inherently good people. When we are by ourselves, we are kind and caring. Don’t let society make you choose another path. 

Back to posts
$0$

Sign up for the $O$ newsletter and get news and updates delivered to your inbox.