We all perceive ourselves as the main character, and that leads some people to think bad accidents won’t happen to them
It’s probably a feature that benefits the species.
It doesn’t have to benefit the individual sheeples.
Sounds like plain old stupidity to me. Unwillingness to learn. Often stronger in “main character syndrome” people than in others. I guess Darwinism will sort it out.
My username comes from “pemptagonist,” the fifth most important character in a play (after protagonist, deuteragonist, etc). I thought it was funny, but maybe there’s something in that because I don’t trust my luck one bit.
We actually are the main character. We can only perceive the universe through the data our senses collect. We are each a ghost trapped in a meat sack, standing on a rock, hurtling through the universe. You are wholly incapable of seeing the universe through someone else’s perspective. The best you can do is analyze the data you’ve collected through your own senses and try to guess what someone else is experiencing.
👆
This. Don’t ever let anyone ever convince you that you’re an NPC in your life. You may not be someone else’s main character, but that’s okay. You are yours.
~Believe me when I say there is nothing more debilitating than losing your sense of self in your life.~
You never know if the other people are as consiuos as you and nobody can prove it. It is possible that you are the only one in the universe with a consious mind.
Is it solipsistic in here, or is it just me?
Ya, I guess. That’s a reasonable description, but what I see there is people first playing with some basic ideas about how the world works.
You have to manipulate and work with those ideas in order to really internalize what they mean. That can come out a little clumsy at first.Some familiarity with the literature doesn’t hurt either. So, take this comment about being the only one in the universe. Later on, this person may read about Boltzman Brains, and they will come to understand that this idea has been thoroughly chewed up already a hundred years ago, and of course Rene Descarte laid the groundwork well before that. Oh, and St Thomas Aquinas well before that. Ya, this whole ‘the universe might not really exist’ thing has been well discussed.
I think this is all an exploration process where people try out ideas and see how they work. In the case of solipsism, its attractive at first because it can’t be proven wrong. And then after you play with it enough, you realize its a dead end. Concluding that nothing is real gains you nothing. There’s no advantage to the perspective, and its as futile as itself concludes the universe is.
I know i am
This might all be a simulation.
“we all”??? you clearly seem to lol
OTOH I surely am the main character of my own life. I guess there’s different ways of interpreting that phrase. I don’t think I have so-called main character syndrome.
I dunno, i just dont see it that way. im an organism who experiences the world from my own perspective but i understand nothing about that makes my perspective special. the only extra duty i have is to care for myself because i am myself and im the best one for the job, most of the time. maybe i did have ego death or something?? i dunno, i never thought about it as being the main character or side character. when i see the ilk of Elon Musk talking about things like NPCs it just blows my mind how … “single-minded” people can be.
i see your mind and i know it is part of me but the paradox is that upon recognizing that your single-mindedness is part of me, i cease being single-minded
I’ve never thought I was the main character, logic always suggested I was one of billions lol. But, I came close or technically died multiple times. I’m actually starting to worry I might be the luckiest man alive and it’s only if I keep -metaphorically- getting hit by lightning. 🤬
Don’t you dare threaten me with any kind of immortality, lol. I’m looking forward to silence at some point in my life… I had recurring nightmares that I lived till 120 years old when I was younger.
You’re gonna die old and you’re gonna like it
You could make a religion out of thi—
No. Don’t.
Just need some kool aid to prove people it’ll be alright and we’re golden
Even if this worked, you would eventually run out of parallel universes once you became the oldest person in the world and finally die of old age.
Not if they cure aging in one universe.
So one of my favorite books is Ender’s Game (fuck the author though). Which makes Ender the main charecter. But another one by him that I also really love is Ender’s shadow. Where it takes on of the lesser characters and makes them the main charecter.
So, we all are the main character. Just depends on the perspective.
I think it’s clear by the end of Ender’s Game that Ender was never the main character (his realization of that drives a lot of his character development in the following books). And Bean is not really the main character in that part of the story either, just someone much smarter who better understands what’s going on and who the real players are.
Well yeah. Not THE main charecter. But my point was to say your the main character of A story
I also love Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow. Shame about the authour. Point of view sequels are great. I’ve been reading a great fanfiction retelling the Harry Potter books from Hermione’s point of view, six books are out so far
There’s a fun Harry Potter (fuck this author too) play, called Puffs, or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic, tat is from the point of view of a random Hufflepuff student.
That sounds fun. I’ve often wondered about the normal students at Hogwarts not involved in the action. I once read a Reddit post talking about the Frozen movies from the perspective of a random Arendelle citizen. Also, I agree, fuck Rowling.
Some people are more reckless and others more fearful. Both can be productive, but it’s wiser (as it usually is), to pull yourself towards the middle.
I think that’s how human brains be. We’re already notoriously bad at correctly accounting for low-risk events (eg the lottery). Plus being constantly aware of the full myriad of threats we face would probably be debilitating.
If you haven’t had or seen a kind of accident your brain probably sees no compelling reason to account for it. My partner was lax about flu shots until she started working at a funeral home and saw how many people of all ages die of the flu. Now it’s a threat she has the awareness to accurately account for.
So, it may seem like tragedies happen just to other people.
Of course you are the protagonist of your life, but the chances are, you’re still “other people” to other people.
I mean when you die your story IS over.
What about when you really do have plot armor? When you can jump off a building and land flat footed, but your efforts never give you more then you need?
The difference between main character syndrome and plot armor is that people with plot armor aren’t the writers of their story
