You probably haven’t heard of a video game called Destiny, an excellent player of the game named DrLupo, or a dedicated but average skilled player named Mike Mariana who recently died. That’s too bad. One of the main concepts of Libertarianism is people of like interests gathering and doing what they enjoy without interference. The story I’m about to tell you is what I imagine the world would be if we were all Libertarians.
Mariana developed cancer a few years back and between the disease and chemotherapy his ability to physically interact with the world was greatly diminished. He started playing the computer game Destiny. As the cancer grew worse it was one of the few games he could play and he and a group of online friends spent many hours enjoying themselves in battle.
In Destiny there is a series of tasks called the Trials of Osiris. If a team is able to pass this trial they can visit a place called The Lighthouse. Mariana’s friends decided to dedicate themselves to helping him get there. Sadly, their skills just weren’t up to the task and Mariana was growing ever weaker from the spreading cancer.
They decided to ask a Twitch.tv Destiny streamer who uses the name DrLupo to help. DrLupo is a Destiny expert and agreed to help Mariana. In the game you play in teams of three so DrLupo gathered one of his friends and joined up with Mike to take on the Trials of Osiris. DrLupo did it as part of a charitable 24 hours stream hoping to raise $10,000 for the Make-a-Wish foundation. I do not think I need spell it out. Mariana got to play with one of his heroes, he won the right to visit The Lighthouse, much money was raised, Twitch.tv chipped in by putting the final run on the front page of their site, and there was much rejoicing.
Certainly, a feel-good story but I think more than that. The internet gives us an opportunity to gather with like-minded friends and do things we enjoy in a way not possible throughout human history. Our geographic location is irrelevant, our race is not a factor, our religion is of no consequence, our political affiliation makes no difference, our gender is inconsequential. All the things that divided people throughout recorded history are falling by the wayside.
Not to say that the institutions under attack are not fighting back. People use religious, racial, gender, and political difference in an attempt to lure us into their hate-filled lives. They try to pit us against each other. They try to convince us that hatred, persecution, and rage are the paths to happiness. I’m here to tell you the way to a happy life is to spend it doing things you enjoy with those of similar interests.
The way to self-loathing and unhappiness is to spend your time railing against those who do thing you don’t like, who profess political ideas with which you disagree, or who worship or do not worship the same way as you.
Do you spend your time on Social Media and in real life posting diatribes against those you think are doing something wrong? Trying to ruin the lives of those who act in ways that offend you? This is not the way to happiness. You might think it is but you are destroying yourself in such pursuits. You are wasting your life.
I’m not going to tell you to stop such behavior. If you want to spend your life trying to hurt other people, that’s your business. I’m suggesting you be more like Mariana. Spend your time doing the things you love, because you’re going to be dead soon enough.
Tom Liberman