Disagree. This is just a get out of jail free card, a universal excuse. Don’t blame me, blame the system / my genes / my memes / my parents / determinism / indeterminism...
Regardless of the normative value of the quote your description of the meaning, purpose and implication is flawed. That just is not what the statement means.
That may not be what it’s supposed to mean, but I’ve heard people use it that way.
If you have, in fact, heard people use the statement to mean “Don’t blame me, blame” any of “my genes / my memes / my parents / determinism / indeterminism” (everything except ‘the system’) then you have heard people calling a tail a leg. There is a world of difference between ‘just a universal excuse’ and something that is sometimes used as an excuse combined with a list of half a dozen unrelated excuses.
This isn’t a matter of normative judgement, it is a matter of basic comprehension. And in this case a matter of thinking a negative opinion of something is a justification for misrepresentation.
If the phrase is being used sometimes (or even often) as an excuse then that objection can be expressed explicitly, without abusing the language for rhetorical effect. That’s the difference between prompting my agreement and eliciting disgust.
If there were no players, then there would be no game.
That doesn’t appear true either. Alexandros’ meta comment becomes relevant here, regarding descriptions “for those times when explaining game theory is just loo much of an inferential leap”. The ‘game’ is set up, to a significant extent, by the external (social) environment. By people who are not themselves the relevant players. Without players you just have a game that is not at a Nash equilibrium… yet.
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.
Er, that context doesn’t sound like “I’m a puppet of the system” to me at all. It sounds more like, “don’t be mad at me because I’m successful and you’re not (“Actin’ like a brother done did somethin’ wrong cause he got his game tight”); if you have to be mad at something, be mad at the rules which elevate some and lower others (“some come up and some get done up”), by requiring us to risk much to gain great rewards (“If you out for mega cheddar, you got to go high risk”). Otherwise, work on improving your own performance (“tighten your aim”), rather than envying my success (“act like you don’t see me / You wanna be me”).”
Given that most of the song is bragging about his past actions and willingness to take more such actions in the future, it certainly doesn’t sound like a declaration of helplessness. Heck, for a rap song, it’s practically self-improvement advice. ;-)
I would say that the quote isn’t about “I’m a puppet of the system” but more a critique of a particular incentive system, and there’s validity to this. If a certain activity is incentivized, then it shouldn’t be surprising to expect that someone would eventually engage in that activity. Perverse incentive systems produce truly horrendous results.
Regardless of the normative value of the quote your description of the meaning, purpose and implication is flawed. That just is not what the statement means.
That may not be what it’s supposed to mean, but I’ve heard people use it that way.
If there were no players, then there would be no game.
If you have, in fact, heard people use the statement to mean “Don’t blame me, blame” any of “my genes / my memes / my parents / determinism / indeterminism” (everything except ‘the system’) then you have heard people calling a tail a leg. There is a world of difference between ‘just a universal excuse’ and something that is sometimes used as an excuse combined with a list of half a dozen unrelated excuses.
This isn’t a matter of normative judgement, it is a matter of basic comprehension. And in this case a matter of thinking a negative opinion of something is a justification for misrepresentation.
If the phrase is being used sometimes (or even often) as an excuse then that objection can be expressed explicitly, without abusing the language for rhetorical effect. That’s the difference between prompting my agreement and eliciting disgust.
That doesn’t appear true either. Alexandros’ meta comment becomes relevant here, regarding descriptions “for those times when explaining game theory is just loo much of an inferential leap”. The ‘game’ is set up, to a significant extent, by the external (social) environment. By people who are not themselves the relevant players. Without players you just have a game that is not at a Nash equilibrium… yet.
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.
Given the context, I stand by my interpretation.
Er, that context doesn’t sound like “I’m a puppet of the system” to me at all. It sounds more like, “don’t be mad at me because I’m successful and you’re not (“Actin’ like a brother done did somethin’ wrong cause he got his game tight”); if you have to be mad at something, be mad at the rules which elevate some and lower others (“some come up and some get done up”), by requiring us to risk much to gain great rewards (“If you out for mega cheddar, you got to go high risk”). Otherwise, work on improving your own performance (“tighten your aim”), rather than envying my success (“act like you don’t see me / You wanna be me”).”
Given that most of the song is bragging about his past actions and willingness to take more such actions in the future, it certainly doesn’t sound like a declaration of helplessness. Heck, for a rap song, it’s practically self-improvement advice. ;-)
I would say that the quote isn’t about “I’m a puppet of the system” but more a critique of a particular incentive system, and there’s validity to this. If a certain activity is incentivized, then it shouldn’t be surprising to expect that someone would eventually engage in that activity. Perverse incentive systems produce truly horrendous results.
Also, up vote for analyzing rap music :)
The scenario I imagined was a wealthy drug dealer justifying his profession. But I’ll agree the lyrics allow more benign applications.