Bright, obvious rewards can blind you to deeper value
Philosopher Paul says glaring, easy rewards create value pollution that drowns out quieter worth.
The Micro-Philosopher · How To Make Life Interesting Again And Escape The Dopamine EconomyPaul, who writes as the Micro-Philosopher, had just run through the things whose worth hits you on sight. Meals, drinking water, cash, visible muscle, a home, a vehicle, clothing and good looks, he wrote, carry value you can almost literally see. As Paul puts it, "Oil is 'liquid gold'. Alcohol is 'liquid courage'." With food or a face, the value seems to sit right in the substance.
Then he gave the line he had been building toward: "Too much Light Value creates value pollution in the same way that too much light creates light pollution and prevents us from peering into the cosmos."
By Light Value, Paul means physical or material value that is quantifiable, tangible, and direct. He argues it is light in two senses. It is easy to see and interact with, and, in his view, it is "less existentially weighty and spiritually significant than" the deeper kind of worth he calls Dark Value.
Light Value grabs for your eyes, Paul argues. If invisible dark matter is thought to be made of WIMPs, he jokes, then Light Value is made of SIMPS, for, as he writes, "a simp is someone who excessively tries to win over someone's affection and attention." Sometimes that attention seeking serves survival, he writes, but more often it serves a corporation that wants you to pay attention to it.
That is where his city lights comparison comes in. Paul argues that a flood of bright, immediate rewards blinds people to fainter worth, just as excess city light disconnects city dwellers from nature until, as he writes, "They lose the ability to see stars." He believes most status games in America work this way, rewarding what needs almost no reflection to appreciate, like the automatic positive judgment he says follows visible muscle.
Paul adds a limit to his own claim. He writes that he is not demonizing Light Value, because just as people need ordinary matter to navigate the environment and survive, they need Light Value to cover everyday survival so that richer pursuits become possible. His warning is narrower, that it is a greater mistake to think Light Value is all the value there is.
Questions people ask
What are dark matter and WIMPs, exactly?
In physics, dark matter is unseen mass thought to make up most of the universe's mass, and WIMPs, or weakly interacting massive particles, are one hypothesized form. Paul uses that as an analogy, not a physics claim, for worth that has weight but interacts weakly with attention.
Does he think we should give up money, houses, or fitness?
No. He says Light Value is needed to meet basic needs and put people in a position to do anything interesting. His point is that survival goods become blinding only when they are treated as the whole of value.
What counts as Dark Value in everyday life?
He points to art, education, contemplation, and conversation. In his account, they interact weakly because they take concerted effort to appreciate and are often dismissed with the question, what am I going to do with that?