Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #782: Red-White

Episode Date: October 9, 2020

This is the ninth podcast in my two-color philosophy series. I talk all about red and white.

I'm not pulling out of the driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another Drive Your Work Coronavirus Edition. Okay, so today is another in my two-color philosophy series. I am up to red-white. So what I'm doing is I'm sort of talking about the philosophy of color pairs. So for each of them, I have a series of questions I asked. But before I get to the questions, let me start by running through red and white. Okay, red is the color. It wants freedom through action. Red believes that you have to look inside to know what you want, that there's a way to live a fulfilled life. Your own body, your own emotions

tell you what it wants. And that if you can your heart if you if you can live by your passions you can have a fulfilled and happy life and as far as red is concerned if you are happy rejoice if you are sad cry if you're angry punch somebody you know red really says i'm going to live in the moment i'm going to follow my emotions i'm going to do what i but feels right and fundamentally what red wants is um Red believes that to live free, to live your best life, you have to sort of follow through on all these impulses. And don't restrain.

Listen to yourself. Follow through on what your body, what your mind is telling you and live life. In order to do that, Red, I mean, Red fundamentally, when we say he wants freedom, Red wants to do what it wants to do. It wants everybody to have the right to do what it wants to do.

And the way you do that is not by sitting on your keister, it's by getting up and acting. So Red very much believes in action. Okay, White is about peace through structure. White believes that there's enough resources in the world that everybody can be happy, that everybody can have what they need. Not necessarily what they want, but what they need. But in order to do that, in order to make sure that there is peace, that everybody's happy, you have to act in a way that thinks about the group as a whole.

Now, white understands that not everybody's going to do that. And so it makes a lot of rules. It makes civil rules, what we know as laws, to say, oh, you can't do that. That's illegal. There's a punishment if you do that. Also, it makes up moral laws, religion, that one of the reasons not to do something that you shouldn't be doing is it's morally wrong. That it is wrong for your soul.

And so, you know, it's wrong to do it because you'll go to jail. And it's wrong to do it because it's morally wrong. And so white very much uses this structure as a means to help guide people so that we can live in a world where everybody has what they need. Okay, now red and white are enemies. So the first question I always ask is what do the two colors have in common? And the easiest way to find that is they share an ally. So let's go look at their shared ally. Their shared ally is green.

White looks at green and finds a fellow that understands the need of community. Green is all about understanding the place you have in the world and the wide web, you know, the interconnected web of life. And green and white get along in the sense they understand that, like, the value of the group. But green and red also get along. Green is very instinctual. You know, green believes that you are born with instincts that you need to follow. And green and red definitely overlap in the sense of valuing intuition, valuing your gut and doing what comes naturally. Okay. So when you look at red, white, what you are finding is, and we look at green, is a sense of balance, is a sense of when red and white come together, you have,

you know, the inherent conflict of red-white is what I will call the idea of the security of white versus the freedom of red. You know, white wants to make sure that everybody is safe, but red wants to make sure that people have the ability to do what they want to do. And red normally looks at white and says, you're restricting people. And white normally looks at – red looks at white and says, you're a fascist. And white looks at red and goes, you're an anarchist. And that each one sees the other as causing problems. But, OK, how do they get together?

How does red and white combine? Well, the thing they have in common – well, they have a couple things in common. One is they both are very passionate. Red literally follows its passions, but white is very zealous. Red and white share this sort of strong belief in I need to do what I need to do. They're the two colors that are the most sort of zealous in that way. Also, they tend to be the ones that are, when you think of armies and things, fighters tend to be in red and white.

And, I mean, white has more traditional armies. Red has sort of a scrappy band that gets together. And, for example, in the game, red and white are the colors that are aggression and the colors that are weenie colors, that attack, that small attack. So, when you get them together, you see that. The red and white both really believe... The thing that's interesting about red and white is they both have a passion for what they're up to in a way that the other colors – I mean the other colors want things, but they don't have the passion that red and white tend to have. is usually one of the things that when colors combine is there is means and there is ends,

meaning I want something and I'm going to do something to get there. And so the most common ways you tend to see red and white come together is red means white ends or white means red ends. So, okay, so first we'll do red means white ends. So that is, and you see this a lot in pop culture, is the idea of, what's the word I want? Somebody who acts outside of a law, a vigilante. It's somebody who acts outside of a law, but fundamentally they're trying to do good. And so the idea is, my

end goal is for the best of society, but I'll break the rules I need to break to get there. And so the Punisher from Marvel, for example, is a really good example of this. For those who don't know, the Punisher is – his family was gunned down by the mob in a crossfire.

They weren't – like there was a gang warfare and his family got caught in the crossfire and killed. And so the Punisher has decided, I'm going to make the world a better place by killing all the bad guys. But normally, you know, the heroes don't kill the bad guys. They put them in jail and stuff. But he's like, nope, I'm going to kill them all. And so there's a very sort of red-white quality there where his goal is to make the world a better place. His goal is very white-oriented.

He is not out for himself. He's not doing it because it makes his life any better. In fact, it adds a lot of complications to his life. But the means he gets there is, you know, he'll do what he needs to do. And so that's very, you'll notice also one of the very common tropes in pop culture. You'll have a pair of police detectives. And one is by the book and one is a renegade. And that's a white-red combination.

The two of them together are kind of this white-red combination of watching what happens. And it's a very familiar thing. Okay, the other end is the idea of red ends, white means. My favorite example of this would be V for Vendetta. It's a comic book they made into a movie. There's a character that wants to create chaos, but he is using a lot

of organization and structure to bring it about. So, like, his end goal is chaos and anarchy, but his means to do it is very white means. So, that's the other way you can go, where it's a chaotic character, but very orderly in the means that they bring it about.

For example, like Rachel Ghoul is a villain of Batman and Rachel Ghoul is a character that has been portrayed a bunch of different ways. But there's a version of it that definitely has this quality of wanting to create anarchy but very, very orderly in the anarchy he's trying to create. I realize that Rachel Gould, there's a lot of arguments whether he's black or green. Anyway, he's a very complex character, a cool character. Okay, next. How do the two differ? What's the guild's internal conflict?

Well, the internal conflict is the conflict of the colors, right? The idea of what role do you have towards society? Are you supposed to be protecting others? You know, are you supposed to be like, are you trying to make sure that everybody is safe? Or are you trying to make sure that everybody has opportunity? White and red are both looking out for society on some level, but in very different ways. White is like, I want to make sure that we put all rules in place to make sure that nobody gets hurt, that nobody is, you know, and white is willing to suspend some liberties for safety. Where red, red is willing to give up some safety for liberty.

That the liberty versus safety thing is a very big conflict in Red-White. And so, one of the things that's very interesting about it is trying to get a general sense of, like, one thing that I find very funny is there's a lot of ways to look at the

conflict that are, that view from one standpoint. Like for example, order versus chaos is more of a white way to look at the red white conflict because, uh, it's sort of like white saying, well, obviously this is good. That is bad. Um, where red will look, uh, much more like, you know, freedom versus fascism. You know, like The idea of my way lets people live and do what they want and your way restricts them and locks them up

and keeps them from doing what they want. Okay. Next. What? Okay, so when red and white get together, what is their end goal and how do they achieve those goals? I just talked about this already. So I do think that one of the things about red and white is red and white tend to be trained fighters.

Most of the trained fighters show up in red and white. So like, for example, in magic, in a game about combat, you tend to see very aggressive, strong fighters. That's why red and white usually in Magic are more aggressive decks. But in, yeah, so I mean, it leans a little more into the take action. Okay, what does red white despise? What negatively drives them? I think that red and white very much are people of action. It's a color combination of action, right?

When you get red and white together, they are, of all the color combinations, maybe the, I mean, clearly from a magic standpoint, they're the most aggressive as far as size of creatures and stuff. But also that they have, they really have this drive to accomplish what they're trying to accomplish. And Red White honestly believes that what it is doing is helping people. That, you know, Red White, it depends, I mean, once again, you know, red-white, it depends. I mean, once again, whether you have red ends or white ends, red-white believes that it is doing what it needs to do. And red-white cares about the group as a whole. It cares about, red-white is trying to be helpful. Like, for example, in Ravnica, the guild that's red-white is Boros,

and they are the police. You know, they, now, in clearly red-white fashion, they're red-white police, meaning they are a police force that very much wants to keep the peace, but they'll do what it takes. They're a little more white means red ends.

They'll do what, you know, they're not willing to shy away from doing what they need to do. And I think red-white is interesting in one of the things that when you sort of study sort of philosophy and decision-making, they talk a lot about sort of

where are you making your decisions? Like, at what level? And red-white is definitely one of the ones that like it looks at the laws but then it thinks a step above the laws, right? Why are the laws there? What's going on?

And that red-white tends to act sort of like I care less about what the rules are as much as I care about what the purpose of the rules are. And red-white really has a lot of – it very much – it has ideals. Red-white very much is one of the color combinations that kind of lives by its ideals. It wants things.

And the interesting thing is white and red – I think one of the things I find interesting, very interesting about enemy colors in general is that there's a lot of similarity in your enemies. Clearly, there's similarities in allies. They overlap in places. But with enemies, it's kind of neat that there's a lot of, like, flip sides of the coin, like two sides of the same coin, that they each kind of do their own thing. But they're a lot alike in some ways. And I think that red and white both feel that the path that they're on is a path to a better world. Now, on some level, I guess every color, it believes that things will be best if you do it its way.

But red and white are – like I said, they're a little more passionate about it. They're a little more sort of – the passion-zealotry overlap is interesting. So what doesn't red-white like? Well, the way to understand what they don't like is look at the ally – each one of them has an enemy, and those two enemies are allies, and look at what they have in common. Okay, so red's enemy is – that's not white – is blue, and white's enemy that's not red is black, and blue and black are allies. Well, what are blue and black all about? Well, blue and black are all that's not red is black and blue and black are allies well what what are what are blue and black all about well blue and black are all about the importance of change blue and black are all about sort of um you know i'm gonna i'm not afraid to change things to make them be the way that i want to be you know know, blue-black is the color that, like, just because something is

away doesn't mean it needs to be that way. And red-white, when you sort of look at red-white is trying its hardest to make a better world. Like I said, depending on how you do the

ends and means, but fundamentally, red-white wants a better world. Red-white is one of those colors that, like on how you do the ends and means, but fundamentally red-white wants a better world. Red-white is one of those colors that like when you get the passion of red and the zealotry of white together, you just have someone who's going to go to the mat doing what they believe is the right thing to do. And part of that really is they believe in kind of upholding – it depends on what sort of system it is. But it wants to do right by somebody. Like one of the things that's interesting is white cares about people in the sense that it cares about the group. It cares about people as an entity. Where red is the color that has the sort of the strongest bonds with other people you know part a lot of time

we talk about the madness and anger and stuff of red but red also is the color of love the color of loyalty the color of passion that red really bonds with other people in a way that's stronger almost than any other color

in the way it bonds and that red and white when you get together, there's this love of people that sort of comes out with them. And it's no mistake, for example, that when you look at, like, in Ravnica, like, red-white's serving the people, right? Red-white's trying to do right by the people.

They're trying to make it a better city. And that has a lot of red-white to it. And not that they're just trying to make it a better city. And that has a lot of red-white to it. And, not that they're just trying to make it better, but they're trying to prevent unnecessary change. Yeah, one of the things that's interesting, by the way, is kind of fun, is when you have enemy colors

that they kind of function in some way similar to their shared ally, which in this case is green, right? So green is the color that fights blue, black, and fire. That green, green in the center is not about unnecessary change. So red and white, when they get together,

their ally through green, there's an interesting dynamic where they kind of share some of that qualities with green because that's their shared ally. Okay, what is the color's greatest strength and biggest weakness? I think the greatest strength of red-white is how strongly they feel about things.

Their focus. Like when red-white goes off for a task, it is there. It is focused. It wants to accomplish that task. Nobody is more laser-focused than red-white when it knows what it wants to do. And red-white by its nature, because of this sort of certainty of focus, also is one of the colors that gets to react the fastest.

It's no mistake that the red-white color combination is the most aggressive in nature. What is its greatest weakness? I think red-white's greatest weakness is it doesn't believe in subtlety. Red-white wears its opinion on its sleeve. Red-white will tell you what it wants and it'll tell you to your face because it just so fervently believes that.

It's so sure about that, that it doesn't see a need, like Red White just doesn't see a need to lie or, you know, that Red White is so fervent in what it wants that it just will tell you. And so Red White is not particularly good at subterfuge. It's a little too straight and narrow. On some level, like I like to say, your greatest weakness is your greatest strength pushed too far. So white is so laser-focused, it so believes in what it believes

that the idea of hiding its beliefs is just so foreign to it. That is not something that a red right can really get behind. You know, it wants what it wants. It does what it does. Okay, so the thing that I like to talk about, I'm almost not too far from my desk here. Oh, a little bit of time, I want to talk a little bit about how I like to get into the general philosophy, so when you combine them. So, the interesting thing is, what happens when you combine the desire for peace and the desire for freedom?

What, where, like, obviously there's some conflict there uh it's sort of the um um you get into the security versus freedom sort of thing there but um one of the things that's interesting from a philosophical standpoint is um this idea that that there is clean messaging, that there is a right way to live your life. And that red-white really is the color that believes in... So take red's general passion. Like, I want to live my life. I want to – if I feel something, I'm going to act on it. And take the social consciousness of White, which is like your number one goal is to care about everybody else, and combine those together.

And so what happens when you get Red and White together is you get somebody who is driven for making the needs of the group happen. That it's taking the personal drive of red and the outward sort of care of white, and it starts merging those together. That red-white characters tend to, they are focused on making something happen. And that focus blinds them a little bit. Like I said, a lot of vigilantes, not all, there are some white-black vigilantes, but a lot of vigilantes fall in red-white. Not all. There are some white black vigilantes. But a lot of vigilantes fall in red white.

And the ones that tend to fall in red white are the ideas where, look, I believe in my heart of heart what I'm doing. I believe I'm making things better. I believe that I am fighting the good fight. But what tends to happen, this is where we get into red white, is there's this interesting breakdown. White-red is the color of rationalization, in my opinion, in that it wants to do something, and it finds a way to allow itself to do that thing because red-white has a goal. It has some plan in its head,

and it is just going to steam forward to find ways to happen. And now, its goal tends to be group-oriented. You know what I'm saying? That's the white aspect of it. And that it is trying to do something loftier than itself. It is aiming... Red-white definitely... Like, one of the funny things is

green-white, for example, is very much about the group and very much cares about the group. But green does not have the drive that red has. I mean, green has some feral stuff, but red is the color that really has the passion for it. And it is interesting that when you get red and white together, you sort of get this sense of, you know, passionately caring. That maybe is red, white in a nutshell is that it passionately cares.

And it passionately cares about society as a whole. And even – it's funny. Even when you – I used my two examples. And even – it's funny. Even when you – I used my two examples. The Punisher was white ends, red means. And V from Vendetta was the protagonist. It was white – sorry, red ends, white means.

And the interesting thing of both those characters, which literally opposite ends, opposite means, both of them fundamentally believe that what they are doing is the best thing for society. Each one of them believe that the steps they're taking and the things they're doing, they both realize that what they're doing is going to make other people unhappy. They both realize that there's danger that might come to them, but they have to do it. They have to do it because they're doing the right thing. have to do it. They have to do it because they're doing the right thing. And that really is the crux of red-white in my mind is this purity

of drive and the purity of I know I'm doing the right thing. Even though in the act of doing it you are probably breaking some of the rules that in theory you care about. But you're like the thing that's funny about red-white is like red-white cares about the rules.

But if it needs to break the rules, like it's a step above rules. And that's the real key of red-white in that it's – the rules are important but not as important as the fundamental underlying of the rules behind it. So for example, I'll give a very red-white moment from my life. So I'm in college. I'm in a dorm. And in order to get in the dorm, it's in the middle of Boston.

It's an urban college. You have to show your ID to get by the gate to get into the college because they don't want people that don't live at the dorm. And anyway, there is a guy guy that I became very friendly with. I see every day. We usually chat for a bit.

So, I mean, someone who I'm very familiar with. So anyway, one day I come and I say to him, oh, I accidentally left my ID up in my room. Can you just let me in? And he goes, no, I can't let you in because the rules say that you can't come in unless you have an ID pass. And I just went off because I'm like, well, what's the point of the rule? The point of the rule is to not let people who don't live here in the building, but you know, I live here. So clearly you are not violating the point of the rule, right? That the rule

there's nothing against rules, but if you do, if you don't understand the point of the rule, and you act against the violation of the point of the rule like, you know, the whole the entire reason for this whole rule existing was to create some safety but he was following it to a letter to

the point where instead of making me safe, the person who's supposed to make make safe, he's making me not safe. He's not letting into my dorm. And that's – I can recognize the red – one of the things that people heard me talk that I believe I'm red first, then blue, then white, then black, then green. So my red-white stuff comes out in this kind of thing. This is a very red-white thing, where red-white really, really is sort of a step above the rules into the reason behind the rules, and really passionately believes in the reason behind the rules. And so if you kind of break,

if your rule isn't following the reason behind the rules, if it's not following the philosophy of the rules, red-white will really go off on it. And there's, it's interesting one of the things i've talked about this a little bit in that uh i think that the enemy colors make for good comedy that the conflicts conflict is funny uh comedy comedy is based on conflict and um like i said red for example another classic red whitewhite thing is like The Odd Couple. And so The Odd Couple is a Neil Simon play.

It was a TV show, a movie. And the whole premise is these two guys have to live together, and one is very neat and orderly, and one is a bit of a slob, and the conflict between them. And you, like, once again, like Lethal Weapon. Like, the pairing of a white character and a red character is just, you see a lot in pop culture because it's funny. It is funny to find the person who's very uptight and the person who just does anything.

And the white one looks at the red one and goes, I can't believe you're breaking all the rules. And the red one looks at the white one and goes, why don't you ever break the rules? So I find that funny. Anyway, that, my friends, is red and white. The thing that is very interesting as we go through these is when we – magic is cool in that each color really has a very clean and crisp philosophy to it. But the two-color philosophies are the ones where I think you get – it's the place where you get the best sort of – because you get some combinations of colors,

you get some very good characters. Not that you can't make three and four and five-color characters, but those are a lot trickier. Two-color are – it's enough colors for definition, but not so much that it starts getting muddy. Um, and so if you, when, when, when people have me, uh, on my blog, I will, people will give me pop culture characters that I know, and then I will tell what color they are. Um, and one of the things that is funny is, um, how usually, uh, I find a lot of pop culture characters

tend to be one or two colors just because the nature of pop culture is you want characters that are strong in some attribute. Like normal people, actual real people are a little more well-rounded than characters. But characters, usually because you're trying to be entertaining or be fun, they tend to push certain qualities that's just more entertaining.

And so I find that pop culture characters tend to be in more in one and two colors. Especially two colors. Anyway, guys, that is my talk about Red White. Hopefully you found this interesting.

I will, and I'm not right away, but I have one more coming. My final one will be my Green Blue. And then I will, and I'm not right away, but I will, I have one more coming. I, my final one will be my green blue, and then I will finish up my, the series took a lot longer than I thought, because I was not planning the pandemic. Anyway, that, my friends, is red white, but I can see I'm now at my desk. So we all know what that means. It means it's the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. I'll see you guys next time.

Bye-bye.