Humility and Non-Playable Characters

    

    Cambridge Dictionary defines "Humility" as “the feeling or attitude that you have no special importance which make you superior to others”. In its traditional use, “humility” is an attribute of virtue. The word comes from the Latin word “humilitas”, meaning “from the earth”. Humility could describe the holy submission between man and a higher being, ie. god. Our decadent society, however, generally doesn’t hold humility very highly. The 20th century modernist and post-modernist movements encouraged diversity, experimentation, independence, and skepticism throughout western society; humility is now nothing short of an insult — a sign one isn’t cut out for success within the competitive nature of our capitalist markets.

    Post-postmodernist culture, or perhaps even before that, holds high regard for anyone willing to be unique, stand-out, and controversial. People who don’t stand out are just like everyone else, and fade into a conglomerate blorb known as “the NPC’s” (unconscious & preprogrammed robots). Interestingly, a typical logical fallacy in modern debating is that “everyone” holds a certain opinion, so it must be false, uninspired, or even a huge psy-op. What’s more, the idea has recently become so popular that even people who believe in “the NPC’s” have become regarded as “the NPC’s” now. This phenomenon has been deemed “the Zuckerberg effect”.

    But why are we so opposed to group-think? Does generation Z not have any faith in “power in numbers”? A study comparing Germans who grew up in East vs. West Berlin showed that yes, western society has been making us more narcissistic and self-centered. What could possibly be so unsettling about being surrounded by people who think just like you, share your beliefs and values, and provide you with a sense of community? Kids from a young age are taught that no one likes to be left out of anything. Is the next generation’s need for division a result of forced inclusion throughout adolescence stripping them of their independence and desire for importance? We want our kids to have humility, as it’s better for society’s future if everyone works as a whole. But most people find diversion from the mainstream as liberating and meaningful.

     Esteemed scholars aren’t so quick to agree. The great David Foster Wallace, in his essay “This is Water”, claims that those who are thinking narcissistically are not only, “on natural default hardwired settings”, but also implies that they make up the majority of people in the first place. Wallace argues that “controlled thinking” is humility; he makes humility out to be unnatural. I am inclined to agree. Yet history still makes out humility to be virtuous. Perhaps our fascination on narcissism and self-centeredness as the new “unnatural” will be the end of human society and development.