One thing I think is widely underappreciated about the color wheel as a classification system is the extent to which everything nonwhite is alien to modern society. We live in a culture and society dominated to a very large extent by white values. Our virtues are white; our fears are white; 1984, Stranger in a Strange Land, the Borg, FDR’s Four Freedoms, the UN Charter of Human Rights, the military, the Peace Corps. The major geopolitical and ideological struggles of the 20th century were between various flavors of white; royalism vs. democracy, communism and.democracy vs. fascism, communism vs, democracy. Tradition vs. feminism and vs. racial equality. Religion and separation of church and state are also both white concepts.
There are important nonwhite concepts; capitalism is black at its most prosocial, atheism is blue, the sexual revolution brought on by The Pill is primarily red. Rationalism is, naturally, extremely blue.
But just like the correct answer to “What D&D alignment are you?” is almost always true neutral, the correct answer to “What main MtG color are you?” is almost always white. In order to get useful classification power you must adjust away from the baseline by treating someone who’s 70% white and evenly split between everything else as your zero point.
> the correct answer to “What main MtG color are you?” is almost always white
I was with you right up until this line. It seems like most or all the previous examples of White that you gave involved groups of humans cooperating, or the attitudes of society in general. And if we look from that kind of perspective, observing the collective, it seems like no surprise that we’d see White.
Whereas, on the other hand if we looked at the daily life of an individual and asked why they do the things they do, wouldn’t we be seeing everything as Red/Black?
Even if you look at individuals, we are far more concerned with social pressure, social status, and morality than could possibly describe a red/black world. Blue cares about what’s true, black about what’s useful, red about what’s appealing, green about what’s natural. Only white cares about what’s good, and by extension what’s bad.
The fact that shame works and guilt exists are solid proof that white is a very powerful force in our individual psychology. These are things that other colors find alien.
I think weirdly part of my motivation is green as well. I seek to live in harmony with nature, by being able to recycle all my waste and just rely on sunlight as an input, like a plant. But I still want to maintain a high tech base (so I need blue). I do want us adventure to new worlds etc which is the red motivation. There are other aspects of motivation that I find hard to classify. There is an enjoyment of being able to create your own things, this seems red but is a different sort of red to the adventure of space travel. I’m not sure those two types of red are conjoined, I know people with one but not the other.
Honestly, I see that as being Black. If you’re tutoring other people and supporting them in reaching self-reliance that skews into other colours, but I often think of Objectivism’s “everything works better when everyone is selfish” as being a very Black way of seeing the world.
I thought it an interesting edge case, which is why I asked.
I definitely skew into the tutoring and supporting side of things. I also don’t think “everything works better when everyone is selfish”, just that when people are capable of being self-reliant then they can move on from abusive situations or cope when the people that normally do a task no longer do so (for whatever reason).
Loren ipsum
One thing I think is widely underappreciated about the color wheel as a classification system is the extent to which everything nonwhite is alien to modern society. We live in a culture and society dominated to a very large extent by white values. Our virtues are white; our fears are white; 1984, Stranger in a Strange Land, the Borg, FDR’s Four Freedoms, the UN Charter of Human Rights, the military, the Peace Corps. The major geopolitical and ideological struggles of the 20th century were between various flavors of white; royalism vs. democracy, communism and.democracy vs. fascism, communism vs, democracy. Tradition vs. feminism and vs. racial equality. Religion and separation of church and state are also both white concepts.
There are important nonwhite concepts; capitalism is black at its most prosocial, atheism is blue, the sexual revolution brought on by The Pill is primarily red. Rationalism is, naturally, extremely blue.
But just like the correct answer to “What D&D alignment are you?” is almost always true neutral, the correct answer to “What main MtG color are you?” is almost always white. In order to get useful classification power you must adjust away from the baseline by treating someone who’s 70% white and evenly split between everything else as your zero point.
> the correct answer to “What main MtG color are you?” is almost always white
I was with you right up until this line. It seems like most or all the previous examples of White that you gave involved groups of humans cooperating, or the attitudes of society in general. And if we look from that kind of perspective, observing the collective, it seems like no surprise that we’d see White.
Whereas, on the other hand if we looked at the daily life of an individual and asked why they do the things they do, wouldn’t we be seeing everything as Red/Black?
Even if you look at individuals, we are far more concerned with social pressure, social status, and morality than could possibly describe a red/black world. Blue cares about what’s true, black about what’s useful, red about what’s appealing, green about what’s natural. Only white cares about what’s good, and by extension what’s bad.
The fact that shame works and guilt exists are solid proof that white is a very powerful force in our individual psychology. These are things that other colors find alien.
Loren ipsum
What colour am I if want everyone capable of being autonomous and self-reliant <_< >_>
Loren ipsum
I think weirdly part of my motivation is green as well. I seek to live in harmony with nature, by being able to recycle all my waste and just rely on sunlight as an input, like a plant. But I still want to maintain a high tech base (so I need blue). I do want us adventure to new worlds etc which is the red motivation. There are other aspects of motivation that I find hard to classify. There is an enjoyment of being able to create your own things, this seems red but is a different sort of red to the adventure of space travel. I’m not sure those two types of red are conjoined, I know people with one but not the other.
Honestly, I see that as being Black. If you’re tutoring other people and supporting them in reaching self-reliance that skews into other colours, but I often think of Objectivism’s “everything works better when everyone is selfish” as being a very Black way of seeing the world.
Black doesn’t necessarily want everyone else to get the benefits of being black, tho
I thought it an interesting edge case, which is why I asked.
I definitely skew into the tutoring and supporting side of things. I also don’t think “everything works better when everyone is selfish”, just that when people are capable of being self-reliant then they can move on from abusive situations or cope when the people that normally do a task no longer do so (for whatever reason).