Games and Reality

(Written June 5, 2015) 
for The Bold Pursuit

Let’s not play games here.  On the other hand, let’s.

      Games are not what they may seem at first to be.  At first one associates them with frolicking children, and perhaps after a moment of thought, with adults engaged in some inconsequential pastime.  Games, however, are very consequential.

      Take for example the fact that the military forces of many nations engage in what are called, “war games.”  These are in fact, practice sessions for the real thing. Everyone from generals and admirals to the lowest ranking personnel take part.  They carry out, as closely as possible without actually killing people or bombing cities, the tasks they would in war.  It’s a game, and a very serious one at that.

      In professional sports, games are themselves the activity of consequence, where tickets and merchandise are sold for billions of dollars.  Even in collegiate sports, the games are played not “just for fun,” but with vast amounts of money at stake, not to mention careers.

      Even recreational games are often modeled after real life, however loose the imitation may be.  Chess was probably intended to represent medieval warfare, albeit in a very abstract form.  Modern day computer games may rival the simulations used by the armed forces, modified for customers whose goal is entertainment.

      Most games are competitive.  Checkers, Bridge, Monopoly and other games are usually played against one or more opponents, and the outcome is that one player “wins,” while the others “lose.”  Hurt feelings sometimes result.

      Games People Play is a 1964 book by psychiatrist Eric Berne (1910 – 1970) which analyzed the very consequential interactions between individuals.  Later studies categorized people in terms of power struggles within their relationships, including in business and in marriage.  The object of these kinds of games is to win outright, or if not that, to gain some advantage over another person.

      In short, games are very serious matters in themselves.  Moreover, a study of games can allow us to use them as reflections of reality, with which we might better understand real life.

      For example, sports have often been touted as useful in teaching children to prepare for adult life.  Sports involve discipline.  To succeed in sports, one must train, one must forego unhealthy habits, and one must focus on improving one’s skills.  Team sports are especially useful, because they include group dynamics in which self-interest and group interest must be properly balanced.

      Physical sports may not be suited for everyone, but other forms of competition are available.  We mentioned chess and checkers, which stress analytical thinking.  Those games, however useful, lack one important aspect that we find in real life.  On the chess board, one always knows (if he is observant) where his opponent’s strengths and weaknesses are.  In real life, there is what we call the “fog of war,” which consists of many layers of unknown and unknowable factors upon which depend success or failure.

      This is true not only in war, but in business, in politics, and in many forms of personal relationship.  In a game, one knows who the opponent is, but in real life, the adversary may sometimes become an ally.  At the same time, your ally may have goals that conflict with your own.  In any large corporation, office politics can be ferocious.  Internecine conflict may sometimes become more pronounced than conflict with external competitors.

      Card games provide an abstract example of this “fog of war.”  Poker and bridge are played without having full information on what cards are held by opponents, or in the case of bridge, even by one’s partner.  In poker, this fogginess can have the result that a player may play a strong hand quite correctly, only to lose to a weaker hand that gets lucky (and stronger) with a subsequent card that is dealt after the initial betting.

      Likewise in “real life,” some people do all the right things, but are badly hurt by subsequent events that they cannot control.  This happens in marriage, in business, and in matters of health (and in politics and war, etc).

      There is a serious psychological effect on some people when they repeatedly suffer losses after performing as well as anyone could.  They tend to become discouraged, to give up, or else, to compete irrationally.  This is true in poker and in business, among other human endeavors.  Repeated, continual losses can leave one depressed, resentful, and feeling that life has been unfair to him.  Blame is often placed where it does not belong, either on particular individuals, or on society as a whole.  “The system is rigged,” we often hear.

      And it is.  Any competitive system is.  The winner is the one who uses all of his advantages, and moves aggressively to increase those advantages.  Cheating does occur, but even when it does not, the winners make more money, get the most desirable mate, and continue to win again and again.

      It’s called life.

      It is known that some people begin life with enormous advantages, and continue to obtain great benefits from them.  Wealth, intelligence, good looks, and even height, are among the predictors of success.  Other people start out poor, of low intelligence, and with unattractive looks, and they are less likely than their more privileged peers to achieve financial success.

      Politicians sometimes promise to remedy these disadvantages.  Those promises are false.  At most, politicians can steal wealth from those who have it, and distribute it to those who (like me) do not.  The “have nots” are prone to support those politicians, and this begets internal competition within society, competition not to produce, but to steal.  That kind of competition creates resentment, division, and even outright enmity between economic classes.

      Unlike in games such as chess and poker, life need not be a game of winners and losers.  Everybody can win.  Even a competitive society can cooperate well enough to lift everyone, and to do so without cheating, stealing or lying.  The formula of capitalism is simple and straightforward:  apply managed labor to natural resources, and the result is wealth.  Wealth will be allocated to individuals unequally— sometimes unfairly, but most often based on their productivity.  Therefore, some people will enjoy great financial rewards, while others will get by on meager rations.

      Rigging the game can be harmful both ways.  If the very wealthy prohibit ordinary people from starting businesses, then competition is reduced, and the general wealth is reduced.  On the other hand, if the “have nots” rig the system politically to steal from the wealthy, then financial incentives become skewed, productivity falls, and political instability becomes destructive to everyone.

      The game will never be to everyone’s liking.  Not every team will go to the championship of life, and not every player will be the star of his team.  Somebody has to be the water-boy.

      Even so, if everyone can understand the rules, and if each person plays the game, the outcome will be as fruitful as possible for all concerned.  Life will never be completely fair, but any attempt to remedy this through redistribution by politicians will only make matters worse.

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