Game On 

I was thinking today of how maddening it is that nearly everything important we do – job, politics, religion, etc. - seems to be a part of some game and how wonderful it would be if we had a complete choice in what games we want to involved ourselves – board games, sports, video games etc.

Let me break it down a little.

I just put out a post/rant about capitalism but let me continue the discussion in the context of it being a game.  Capitalism is an elaborate game where the people with the proper skill-set get to win – namely the skill-set of ambition.  If I set up an economy where a person’s monetary value was based on looks then the gorgeous people of that society would be the wealthy.  You might say to me:  “Well, Dedalus, being ambitious is not the same as being gorgeous because a person is born with looks, it is a genetic attribute, while ambition is something that one has to acquire.”  I would completely disagree.  I believe that it is just as difficult for me to become ambitious for money – because I am not at all - as it is for someone hideous looking to become beautiful.  Ambition seems to be just as much a genetic and cultural part of someone as looks are.  But I’m going off track. 

What I wanted to point out is that capitalism is a game and that nearly anyone born in the West is thrown into the game with really no other options but to play it or starve.  If I don’t like its rules I can’t change it.  If I don’t like how the “winners” are playing it, too bad, I can’t do much of anything about that either.

But let’s move on to something else:  academics.

Largely, academics are a game.  I am  a career student because I enjoy going to school and learning new things.  However, every one of my close and extended family members, my neighbors and friends ask me when I will be finished with school (earn another degree) instead of asking me what I learned in school.  Honestly, I could care less about the degree I have because I only really go to learn more.  When I graduated I still felt the same amount of intelligent than just before graduating.  But we have largely turned university into a game with the goal of, not acquiring knowledge, but a degree.

Also, schooling, especially testing and writing papers, is very much a game.  I’ve written many “A” papers about books or subjects that I never read or knew very little about.  Getting an “A” on a paper or a test is more about understanding your professors, their quirks and expectations and then writing to those, rather than researching and using critical thinking.

Religion and the idea of a God and an afterlife is a huge game.  Anyone who is familiar with religion knows that appearing to be a good person is so much more important than actually being.  (I believe Plato wrote a little bit about this – the better a person actually is the more ostracized that person will be in his social group).  Religion is a game because you have to pretend to be something you are not, or care about things that you don’t really care about.  Being successful in religion means being good with rhetoric and appearance than following the doctrine of that religion.

Now many of you might say:  “Dedalus, you are wrong again.  God will know what is really in your heart.  He will judge you by your actions and thoughts and so it is, in an eternal perspective, better for your soul to be a good person rather than to just appear to be good.”  I would agree, but only to add that God is actually the biggest game-maker of all.  The earth is his board and we are his pawns.  The rules were set out by him and so were the obstacles.  He controls who is good at the game and who is not.  He sets the times that we are allowed to play and the number of years we can play - sometimes only days or hours.  And he can be as unfair as he wants.  God controls every aspect of the game, and some people would say that he is the game himself. 

I guess my point is that every important aspect of our lives seems to be a large game, which, for the most part, seems to be governed by some pretty arbitrary rules.  Wouldn’t it be nice to be a part of something that doesn’t make you feel like you are just a pawn bowing down to the pressure of game-makers like God, professors, politicians and religious leaders?  Wouldn’t it be a much better existence to live and enjoy life for living and enjoying life’s sake?

I think we can come up with a better way of living.