A Quick and Easy Guide to Displaying Your Virtue

Becoming a good person who contributes to society is difficult, as outlined in a previous post.  It requires a change in mindset, a change in attitudes and acting according to rules.  Making that change can also mean that you will face consequences from friends, family and even the authorities. There will always be a cost to being a "good person".  It's actually far easier to LOOK like someone who's virtuous without actually making the sacrifices.  So, in order to gain social brownie points, you'll need to be effective at signaling your virtue to both your digital and analog social circles.

Here are a few easy tips on how to do that.

1) Be Offended and Outraged

You have a lot of options here. You can be offended about jokes. You can be outraged at the lack of racial/gender/religious/sexual orientation/physical size/disability/dietary choice "representation" in films and TV shows. You can complain about public figures' comments, or lack thereof, on a given controversial topic that they have no expertise on.  You can complain about the insensitivity of Halloween costumes.

Of course, even if you're not part of the group that you believe is being victimized by the offensive piece of content, you shouldn't be shy to show how offended and outraged you are.  After all, if you're not part of that underprivileged group, you can still be an "ally" to that group.  You can use your "position of privilege" to help the cause.

You know, because people that are different from you have no agency at all and will always require your help.

2) Take to the Streets and Protest
Historically, protesting on the streets has been a great way to get governments to take action.  This worked in the past when trying to get a dictator to step down from power or to have specific laws changed.  It's eventually worked for people wanting political prisoners to be freed or for people wanting to get an occupying power out of their country.

Of course, there's a cost for those types of protestors. They historically have been targets of violence, unlawful imprisonment and other human rights violations.  Think about the Civil Rights movement in the US in the 1960s, the Arab Spring protests in the early 2010s, the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, or more recently, the protests in Chile and Hong Kong as examples.

If you live in a free society and democracy in 2019, the types of causes similar to those mentioned above aren't found as easily.  Instead, you'll have to find ways to protest against problems and concepts like censorship of free speech, racism, police brutality, income inequality, sexism, anti-scientific thinking, climate change and human extinction.  It's not that these causes aren't worthy of protest. The problem is that these are complex, unspecific issues that require extremely complex solutions which can't be fixed by simply taking a walk.

For example, if you want to stop climate change caused by humans, you can try to get governments to commit to making investments in clean energy and reduce carbon emissions. To make that work, that means you need to create a mechanism to enforce their commitments.  And then those governments have to get trillion dollar industries to bend to their will.  Good luck fixing that with your march.

But hey, you did take to the streets for a cause.  You marched and blocked traffic to let people know that you're fighting against a concept or something that requires a multiple levels of complex thought to to reach a solution.  You didn't really affect change and put yourself in any danger of violent reprisals. Your protesting just made it LOOK like you did something. That should be enough. You just want to seem like you're "fighting" without actually incurring any real cost to your well-being.

3) "Think of the Children"

Saying that you're thinking of children and future generations as a reason for your position is great way to show your virtue.  This is true whether you're part of a highly religious group wanting to censor the latest blasphemous, popular film or whether you're part of an environmental activism group trying to fight climate change.

Even if you don't have kids or you don't really care about kids, you'll sound like someone who cares. All you need to do is to position your argument as being based on "protecting children" or ensuring that you are fighting to "leave a better world for the next generation".  This is a very easy way to demonstrate that you are unselfish and better than other people who can only think of theirs and their own families' current well-being.

It is true that children can be vulnerable to adults who can directly exploit them. This is not what I'm talking about.  To actually help expose and help prosecute a pedophile or a child pornography ring requires time, effort and could potentially put yourself in harm's way.  Studying and getting a job as a social worker who tries to take kids away from their abusive home is way more difficult than simply clicking "like" and "share" on a social media sob story.

It's much easier to say that you're thinking of the children when you petition school boards to censor what kind of books teachers should be teaching or when you demand that certain types of words need to be "policed" in schools.  That's an easier task that will make you seem like a good person who wants to help children.

4) Document everything on Social Media

Of course, you must make sure your efforts are visible to the world. If there are no pics (or videos), then it didn't happen.  This is where social media comes in.

Now I'll admit that in places where oppressive governments censor the press and the flow of information, social media has been useful at disseminating news of civic unrest.  The Arab Spring wouldn't have played out the way it did if it wasn't for Twitter, for example.

However, for those living in free, Western democracies, you can also use this tactic to make your actions seem more virtuous than they actually are.

Post selfies of you and your besties participating in protests to show that "you took part in this historic moment." That way, when someone else did the work of getting elected, changing laws and negotiating with multiple stakeholders to effect real-life political and social change, you can point to your Instagram pic and take credit because you skipped out on a job you don't like that day to take a walk.

Don't be shy to post on public figures' social media accounts to call them out on their non-woke behaviours and opinions. You can "call them out" if they're not living up to the arbitrary moral standards of the day.

Even if these public figures are too busy doing their jobs and have outsourced their social media to their marketing and PR teams, it's ok. You'll get more views on your posts by tagging these people than just posting something yourself. And that means more people can potentially see how morally superior you are.

Final Thoughts
It's very difficult to actually be a good person.  In fact, it's almost impossible if you consider all the unintended consequences of your choices and actions.  Creating real social change is incredibly difficult. It's much easier to make people THINK that you are virtuous.  It's easier to adopt a strong opinion on a subject and determine that one side is perfectly good and the other is evidently evil without examining the nuances.

Whether it's allying yourself with an "oppressed" group or using future generations as the "beneficiaries" of your actions, the idea is to make sure that the most amount of people see that you're being morally superior.  With that, you can reap the benefits of being a good person without having to face the difficult consequences of choosing morally acceptable behaviour.

Banning Ring Card Girls is Anti-Feminist and Prevents Women's Empowerment

Anyone who watches professional combat sports will notice that there are always scantily-clad women carrying large cards around a ring or a cage to remind viewers what round in the fight we're in.

Apparently, some very well-meaning, though misguided feminist activists and politicians in Australia have decided that enough is enough.  They want to end the objectification and exploitation of women by banning ring card girls (a.k.a. "round progress managers") at a championship boxing match this past August.  They are now even petitioning the UFC not to have the iconic Octagon girls in between rounds in the upcoming event this coming October.

Are current feminists all of a sudden uncomfortable at the thought of women showing their bodies and getting paid handsomely for it if they want to? I was under the impression that a way to empower women is by giving them choices in the types of work they do.  If a woman wants to show off as much or as little of her body in public as she wants, nobody should be able to tell her otherwise
 
I can see where the "objectification" argument might come from, but as for "exploitation", I tend to disagree. None of these politicians and activists actually asked the women doing the ring girl jobs if they've ever felt exploited or forced to do this.

By banning these jobs, these politicians and activists are effectively taking away these women's right to make a living legally. And yes, I do call this work for the simple reason that it takes commitment and discipline when it comes to exercise and diet to maintain the physical condition that these women have.  Also, if you do any research, you'll learn that many of these women have actually used the platform of combat sports as a launching point for extremely lucrative partnerships, sponsorships and careers in modeling, art, broadcasting, podcasting, and other fields.

Maybe it's a question of representation.  Would there be as many complaints and bans if more "plus-sized" women were represented in the job the same way that we now have an increasing amount of "plus-sized" models?  What if we had more women over the age of 45 doing the job?  Or maybe more women in wheelchairs?

Would there also be as many complaints if in addition to having ring card girls during men's fights, we had ring card guys during women's fights?  The all-women MMA promotion Invicta FC debuted Canadian pro-fighter Elias Theodoru as their ring card boy last year.  He hasn't done it since, but I think it would be more interesting to see dudes doing the same type of job in other organizations.

How many feminists and activists would complain if pro-fighter Elias Theodoru continued working as a Ring Card boy on the side?

 

Personally, I've always thought that it was a bit weird to see ring card girls in between rounds of a women's MMA championship fight.  So it would make more sense to have more ring card guys reminding us what round it is.  It would be somewhat sexist and regressive to consider this job as exclusively "women's work" after all.

The point I'm trying to make is this.  The Australian bans are simply an attack on soft targets that make it look like they're doing something when they're really just trying to show off how much more virtuous they are than the rest of us.  If politicians and feminists were really looking to empower women, stop exploitation and objectification, they would be aiming their outrage at real issues of violence against women and lack of education for girls in other countries outside of the Western world.

Professional Combat Sports: The Best at Beating the Gender Pay Gap

Professional sports have always been the target of feminist activists. Whether it's a question of equal pay, proper representation, glorification of violence and objectification of women.  Most "woke" people will probably say that combat sports are the biggest offenders.

I would argue the opposite.  Professional combat sports are probably the only professional sport that promotes meritocratic gender equality for both male and female athletes.

The main complaint many activists have with professional and international sports leagues is that female athletes aren't being paid as well as the male athletes (think FIFA, professional tennis, NBA vs. WNBA, etc).  Putting aside the fact that male sports leagues have larger audiences than female sports leagues, thus creating more revenue, there is a question of allowing women's sports the same opportunity to earn as much as men's sports.

Mixed Martial Arts promotions like the UFC, Bellator, ONE Championship and PFL have actually solved this problem by having men and women in the same fight cards (not fighting each other of course).  In their older pay-per-view business model, the main event fighters who get paid the most are determined by who can put the most butts in seats and have the most people clicking the "Buy" button on their remote controls.

At one point in time, that person in the UFC was Ronda Rousey.  In fact, her fight with Holly Holm still holds the highest record in attendance at 56,214 tickets sold.  Her pay had nothing do with her gender.  She didn't protest to her employer and make hashtags about getting equal pay as the men. Instead, she used her dominant fighting ability to draw a paying audience and made millions of dollars for herself.

The UFC's record for highest-attended event headlined by two amazing badass women: Rousey vs. Holm

When Rousey retired from the sport, the organization had trouble selling the same amount of pay-per-view fight cards with any other headline fight, male or female.  It wasn't until Conor McGregor showed up on the UFC scene that we've seen similar numbers.


The Professional Fighters League (PFL) promotion actually took this "equal pay for equal work" ideal to another level.  Instead of simply using drawing power, this league actually created a regular season that gives fighters a chance to win playoff spots similar to the NFL, the NBA or the NHL.  They are then seeded into a playoff-style tournament for each weight class, where the winners of each weight is crowned that season's champion.  Every champion from each weight class (both men and women) each win $1 million.

Of course, mid-card and under-card fighters don't get paid as well as the main-eventers, but then again, they are all pretty equally underpaid.


Whether it's by equalizing main-event and championship fighters' pay or by counting the number of tickets sold, the bottom line is the same.  Whether you're a man or a woman, your earning potential in combat sports won't be determined by your gender.  That's better than any other professional sport when it comes to the so-called gender pay gap.

We Are NOT Created Equal

This is a follow up on the previous piece on how to get good at anything.

The premise of practicing with full conscious effort will definitely get you as far as you potentially can in any given field. However, there are limitations to how far each individual can get because we are not born with the same genetic potential and predispositions.

Some people have the genetic predisposition to have more fast-twitch muscle. Some are more likely to have certain types of addictions. Other individuals are more likely to get certain kinds of cancer. Some will be born with missing limbs. Some have genes that cause them to have osteoporosis and arthritis before the age of 40. Others will be predisposed to have higher muscular endurance and a higher pain threshold. Some people will be born to be potentially 7 feet tall while others won't grow taller than 4 feet.

I could quit my day job, train for 8 hours a day and try to get faster at sprinting for the next 4 years. Despite the 10,000 hours of dedicated training I will never even come close to catching a retired, "out-of-shape" Usain Bolt in a 100 meter dash. Although I might be able to outdo him in other things (here's hoping any way).

 

Bottom line: constant practice with conscious effort will make you better at any skill. However, there is an upper limit that we can get to for each field, be it sports, intellectual pursuits, martial arts, music, or entrepreneurship.

Guess what! Life isn't fair. Every individual will have certain biological advantages over other people in certain fields while having disadvantages in others. Despite what any idealist with their heart in the right place will tell you, we are not all created equal. What's important is that we give everyone the equal opportunity to find, acquire and develop the skills that best fit with their strengths.

How Weiss, Benioff and the Cast and Crew Should React to Game of Thrones Critics

***THIS POST IS DARK AND FULL OF SPOILERS*** 

One of the biggest television and cultural phenomena came to an end last Sunday. Throughout the final season, critics and long-time "fans" have taken to social media to post their dissatisfaction. The complaints and criticisms ranged from the "poor lighting" during the epic NIGHT BATTLE of Winterfell, Starbucks cups in the Great Hall of Winterfell, plastic waterbottles in King's Landing, Jon Snow not petting Ghost, and supposedly poor writing and plot twists.

At one point, a bunch of entitled, self-indulgent fans decided it would be a great idea to sign a petition asking the show to create a do-over of season 8. You know, because their favourite characters aren't doing what they expected them to do. As it stands, there are over 1 million people who signed this petition.

While the season certainly wasn't perfect you can't deny the success of the show. If I were the writers, cast and crew of Game of Thrones, I would point out the following to the critics and haters.

Weekly Success in the Age of Streaming

Television as we know it is now dominated by the on-demand, streaming model. Even the larger cable and satellite providers now have no choice but to provide more and more on-demand options to compete.  TV ratings overall are down.  Fewer people are sitting down at an exact time every week to watch a show that's constantly interrupted by commercials that take you out of the viewing experience.

In that environment, Weiss, Benioff, the cast and the crew should point out that Game of Thrones is probably the only show that people worldwide anticipate, wait for, and run home to watch at the specified time every Sunday night that it's on.  It's a phenomenon that isn't matched any where.  As a premium HBO show, it gets somewhere between 10 to 16 million LEGAL views per episode.  If you add illegal streaming and pirating, some estimates bring that up to close to 44 million viewers per episode on season 8 alone.

As a point of comparison, the final season of The Big Bang Theory, the most watched network sitcom in the binge-watch/streaming era, got about 18 million viewers for their final episode.

No other show comes close.  Game of Thrones, by that metric alone, is a phenomenon.

Not Meant to be Allegory

Some of the "disappointment" that many fans expressed might also have to do with viewers mistakenly attributing allegorical aspects to the story that the author of A Song of Ice and Fire book series never intended to be there.

Some fans made a decent case for saying that the Night King, his White Walkers and the army of the dead as being an allegory for climate change. It's being largely ignored by those in power because their priority is to fight wars against each other.  The White Walkers were always presented as a looming threat that was being dealt with by a small, understaffed, underfunded, minimally-trained team who are desperate for help.

Despite thousands of losses during the epic battle of Winterfell, the fact that the Night King was killed in relatively easy fashion by super assassin Arya Stark effectively ruined this allegory.

Another potential allegory was the feminist angle of the show.  Yes the show depicted a lot of physical and sexual violence against women.  However, the show had very strong female characters flouting the norms of both Westeros' and Essos' patriarchal societies.

At the end of season 7, three women were positioned to be contenders of the battle to come: Cersei Lannister at King's Landing, Daenerys Targaryen was getting ready to land with her dragons and armies, and Sansa Stark was pretty much on her way to becoming Queen in the North.

Understandably, feminist viewers have been given a reason to believe that the future of Westeros will be female.  So what happened?  Well, the "evil queen" Cersei was killed by falling bricks in anti-climactic fashion.  Not exactly the glorious end for such a power player.  Dany, the "queen of the ashes", defeated her enemies to win the Iron Throne only to have a man stab her in the heart before she could even sit properly on said throne.

Sure Sansa ends up becoming the Queen of the newly independent North, but it's a comparatively minor kingdom when compared to the remaining six kingdoms to be ruled by her younger brother.  With the show ending with "Bran the Broken" as king and his small council made up mainly of men, it's not surprising that the feminists want to criticize the show's conclusion as well.

The truth of the matter is, George R.R. Martin didn't intend to create a feminist novel.  If anything, he was actually tried to base his books on medieval history. Sure, the period mostly had male leaders but women played much more important roles than what we stereotypically think in shaping the time period.  And that's what the author (as well the cast, crew and writing team) managed to portray in the series. 

"Bad/Rushed" Writing and Plot Holes?

Many fans seem to lay the blame on Benioff and Weiss for the seemingly rushed writing that supposedly left a bunch of plot holes.  That just seems strange to me considering that these guys, along George R.R. Martin, have worked on the show since the beginning to critical acclaim and multiple awards.  All of a sudden the greatest tv-screen storytellers of the past decade are now garbage?

Maybe additional episodes were needed to "build" the character twists. Or maybe as an audience we weren't paying enough attention to 8 SEASONS WORTH of "character development". Dragons, undead soldiers, and bare breasts can be quite distracting after all.

Unexpected character twists and deaths are the norm for this show: be it the Dany heel turn, Tyrion actually makes a misjudgement, King Bran, Jon Snow back in The Black, Arya sailing west to discover "Amerikos", etc.