I’d say this applies to a far broader group; I’ll never forget when a professor asked for a show of hands on the first day of class: “how many of you will have more than 10 million?”
More than half raised their hands immediately. It was a Philosophy 101 class.
The first time I tried them, it was like I peaked behind the “curtain” in the Wizard of Oz, and knew even in that moment I’d never be able to unsee or forget it. It was the equivalent of being a child and realizing Santa didn’t actually exist.
Life as I had known it, the things that then animated me, were “shown” to be a pantomime - a joke. It was tremendously sad, and - for better or worse - I’ve never been the same since.
Maybe it was a coming of age experience - something I would have more painfully experienced later anyway. But it cost something significant. It changed me. Still, some 25 years later, I don’t know if it was for the better.
Except Ukraine is a sovereign nation - much like Russia (which in today’s form does not hold any reasonable claim to Kyiv) - and renaming either nations capital city to satisfy some man’s thirst for legacy would be equally vulgar. The analogy holds pretty well, from where I’m standing.
I think the thing that I’m most amazed by - and this setup is truly amazing - is the fact that you’ve got a group of friends to enjoy this with. Good for you; this looks like a blast, and I can only imagine how fun that’d be, compared to years of purely solo gaming.
That's true to an extent, but it's also quite a bit more expensive than the $300 (CAD) I paid for an XBOX with 2 controllers, and I had the side benefit of being able to easily play with the kids (who find it easy to use).
Small SC II events still get referred to as “LAN” often because, while it requires an online connection, it’s still the same vibe/format: a bunch of boxes in a room.
My experience with my teen has been that, post-pandemic, he and all of his friends simply decided they didn't want to be inside/bored like they were. We're struggling big-time to keep ours in class. We've tried incentives. We've levied punishments. It's like neither they nor their friends care - at all - about any of it (certainly much less afraid of consequences than I ever was).
Add the much more common use of drugs to the mix (from 14 on), phones that are not required to be put away in class, and it's very tough to keep them on track.
I didn't have half of the distractions/opportunities for entertainment kids these days have, and it was hard for me to muster up the enthusiasm.
One of the things I’ve struggled with as a parent, having grown up with an angry and remote father, is being able to follow through on consequences/being conflict avoidant (something I generally struggle with) due to an internal guilt and innate discomfort with being “mean”. Over time, this has started to change out of necessity, as my oldest figured this out about me, and began taking advantage of my resistance to anger.
Having two children 7 years apart (with a chance to improve significantly as a parent remaining), I now really understand the wisdom of what you shared here, and try to remind myself of this every day. Love doesn’t always mean pleasant moments. Being firm when called for and establishing rules/consequences makes things easier in the long run, and helps avoid blow up moments.
Your claim was that economic decoupling increases conflict (which has not been fully bourne out by the evidence), not that conflict levels overall have been declining over time.