I don’t intend to defend Richard’s comment in its entirety. But words mean what people use them to mean, and the same goes for ambiguous phrases.
I mostly hear people use it to mean “My actions are ethically unimpeachable, because that is the way that people do things.”, which is a refinement of “Don’t blame me; blame the system.”. I gather from your comment that you accept the latter sentence as a legitimate interpretation of the phrase (and it’s the first one that Richard offered). If you think that the refinement is illegitimate, perhaps it’s not what Ice-T meant, but it’s a natural interpretation.
(Actually, Ice-T seems to have meant something very different, since he was addressing fellow players who criticise him out of sheer envy. But if they were to start hating the game, then this would just make them hypocrites, so it doesn’t seem to be sound advice. Better to just improve one’s game, or quit.)
I certainly agree that it’s better to change the system than to change individual players. However, sometimes one has more influence over particular individuals, especially if one of those individuals is oneself. And if, as in the social situations where I have heard the phrase applied, the system emerges from the various players, then changing the players is ultimately the only way to change the game.
To make it clear where I’m coming from, I mostly hear the phrase used by people who’ve been caught breaking promises of sexual fidelity, or rather by people discussing such.
And if, as in the social situations where I have heard the phrase applied, the system emerges from the various players, then changing the players is ultimately the only way to change the game.
Not so. At least, not without redefining the game such that the ‘players’ include all those that would otherwise have been considered the external social environment.
Yes, that depends on how widely you take “the game”. Nevertheless, in the contexts where I run across the phrase, changing the players in question would suffice.
There are definitely situations where it goes differently, however. One example that came up in conversation today (without this phrase) is a draftee in a war, who is forced to shoot at people to avoid being shot. Changing all of the players in this position would work, but only if the players on both sides change at once. I would not blame such a person, if they don’t actually want to be there.
So I seem to have just come to this conclusion: It’s illegitimate to blame (to state the ethical culpability of) any player who doesn’t want to play the game but is unable to quit. That includes a lot of examples, just not the ones where I’ve met this phrase.
I don’t intend to defend Richard’s comment in its entirety. But words mean what people use them to mean, and the same goes for ambiguous phrases.
I mostly hear people use it to mean “My actions are ethically unimpeachable, because that is the way that people do things.”, which is a refinement of “Don’t blame me; blame the system.”. I gather from your comment that you accept the latter sentence as a legitimate interpretation of the phrase (and it’s the first one that Richard offered). If you think that the refinement is illegitimate, perhaps it’s not what Ice-T meant, but it’s a natural interpretation.
(Actually, Ice-T seems to have meant something very different, since he was addressing fellow players who criticise him out of sheer envy. But if they were to start hating the game, then this would just make them hypocrites, so it doesn’t seem to be sound advice. Better to just improve one’s game, or quit.)
I certainly agree that it’s better to change the system than to change individual players. However, sometimes one has more influence over particular individuals, especially if one of those individuals is oneself. And if, as in the social situations where I have heard the phrase applied, the system emerges from the various players, then changing the players is ultimately the only way to change the game.
To make it clear where I’m coming from, I mostly hear the phrase used by people who’ve been caught breaking promises of sexual fidelity, or rather by people discussing such.
Not so. At least, not without redefining the game such that the ‘players’ include all those that would otherwise have been considered the external social environment.
Yes, that depends on how widely you take “the game”. Nevertheless, in the contexts where I run across the phrase, changing the players in question would suffice.
There are definitely situations where it goes differently, however. One example that came up in conversation today (without this phrase) is a draftee in a war, who is forced to shoot at people to avoid being shot. Changing all of the players in this position would work, but only if the players on both sides change at once. I would not blame such a person, if they don’t actually want to be there.
So I seem to have just come to this conclusion: It’s illegitimate to blame (to state the ethical culpability of) any player who doesn’t want to play the game but is unable to quit. That includes a lot of examples, just not the ones where I’ve met this phrase.