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In 2023, Don’t be an NPC
Stop feeling, start thinking
I love divisive public figures.
We’ve had a lot of them over the last decade or so, and I believe they perform an important public service: they stir the pot and show us the people who can think for themselves vs those who do what their tribe tells them without even realising it.
They hate who their media tells them to hate.
They believe what their tribe tells them to believe.
They support causes without even really understanding what the cause is, because those like them do the same.
These people are the epitome of what makes an NPC.
But what’s an NPC, you ask? If you’re unfamiliar with gaming, an NPC stands for Non-Player Character, and you’ll find them in roleplaying games. They differ from the human player in that they can’t think — the developers program them to give the same questions and answers all the time.
Sounds like a lot of people these days, doesn’t it?
But before you lament the state of our modern world and the NPCs it produces, I want to point out that humans have sadly always been like this. This parable about the Zen master, Hakuin, is apt:
A beautiful girl in the village was pregnant. Her angry parents demanded to know who was the father. At first resistant to confess, the anxious and embarrassed girl finally pointed to Hakuin, the Zen master whom everyone previously revered for living such a pure life. When the outraged parents confronted Hakuin with their daughter’s accusation, he simply replied, “Is that so?”
When the child was born, the parents brought it to Hakuin, who was now viewed as a pariah by the entire village. They demanded that he take care of the child since it was his responsibility. “Is that so?” Hakuin said calmly as he accepted the child.
For many months he took excellent care of the child until the daughter could no longer withstand the lie she had told. She confessed that the real father was a young man in the village whom she had tried to protect. The parents immediately went to Hakuin to see if he would return the baby. With profuse apologies they explained what had happened. “Is that so?” Hakuin said as he handed…
