What kind of a country us it where teenaged movie stars shoot each other in the streets with guns and die instead of living another 10 years and dying quietly in their hotel rooms of drug overdoses?
I bring this question up because I just discovered actor Mexican Alan Chávez only to learn that he's already dead. "He and some friends exchanged gunfire during an argument. While fleeing from police responding to the incident, more gunfire ensued, and Chávez was mortally wounded." imdb.com
Dying young by arguing violently with your friends is not evidence of playing well in the actual reality game. How does such an outcome advance your own goals or those of anyone else in the game? It does not show mastery of play, it does not support a larger collective strategy, it does not allow for corrective tactics. The play is so bad that I suspect the player of having lost the connection to that reality which is the game.
It is all very sad and pointless.
But then I ask the other question: What kind of a country is it in which accidental death by illicit drug use seem to be more normal than death by violence among friends? I cite the United States, because that is the playing field where I participate in the game. And because I noticed the difference in my reactions to learning of an 18-year-old dying from gunplay compared to learning of yet another actor dying from drugs.
Habituation is a key mechanism for our success in life; this is true both at the level of broad, social acceptance and in the narrow, biological phenomenon. All forms of selectivity are potentially useful tools for directing limited resources toward decisions which merit a greater level of attention. Effective use of habituation is a good tactic in the game.
Ineffective habituation arises when the natural processes are allowed to progress unattended and without rational input. If fatal drug use becomes commonplace, unattended habituation can cause us to ignore the mounting waste around us. If fatal gun violence becomes commonplace, unattended habituation can cause us to ignore the mounting waste around us. If fatal traffic accidents become commonplace, unattended habituation can cause us to ignore the mounting waste around us. It can and it does.
The effective player uses habituation as a tool of attention rather than as a hole into which to place one's head. Sometimes we need our attention drawn to our own use of our tools so as to reevaluate how well we are using them in playing the actual reality game.