Makin' and Breakin' Rules

The Grand Game

Life is one big game in which some rules are set by Nature, others by Culture and others still, more formerly by Civilized Institutions, of which the highest one, we call “The Law”.

The study of the Natural rules and regulations we call ‘Science’. This game is strict. Rules have been defined by what we mean by science, who can do it, who reviews it and what is expected.

Culture is more organic, looser and governed principally by the Institutions of Religion, History, the Arts, Family, Tribes etc…

Finally, “The Law”, is governed by a hierarchy of Judges and depending on type of State you live in, the Laws themselves are usually set by some type of Rule Givers in some type of chamber such as congress / parliament / council.

And finally, we get the games. The games are composed of all of the above. Nature invades everything, whether we are conscious of it or not. Play a game without considering the Law will probably get you in jail. Culture is unique, in the sense that we all get one instinctually wherever we grow up. Play the Western Cultural Game in China, or the Chinese Game in India, for example and you are going to be in a lot of trouble very fast.

Now, one of the biggest contentions in our histories has been the problem of who controls “The Law”. It is well understood that the Rule Givers are also playing the same games as everyone else. The incentive to thus cheat and make rules favorable to oneself is enormous.

The idea of ‘Democracy’ was just that, a solution problem. A new game, in which each member of Society, picks their preferred next Rule Giver. The game ends when everyone has made a choice, the votes are tallied up and the winner becomes the new Rule Giver. Who is then bestowed with this enormous power. Every few years the game is played again to keep things ‘fair’.

Leaving details aside, on a practical matter, we found this simplistic game is very easy to manipulate. Thus new rules were put on top of existing rules in an ever growing set of complexities to fix previous problems, each iteration. Who is fixing the Rules? The Rule Givers. Which problem are they trying to Solve? The problem of the Rule Givers.

You can see why this particular game is so messed up now.

Then there is the Game of Commerce. This particular game is actually based on our observations of Nature. Everyone needs food to eat and once eaten, the poop needs to go somewhere. Everyone also needs housing, transport etc…

It was found through millennia of iteration that these ‘needs’ could be best serviced by organized groups of men, called Companies. They would work together to package the ‘needs’ found in or required by Nature, that could be later sold to the public.

Which brings us to the Game of Money. The game of money was ingenious. It was understood that Nature is finite but our ‘needs’ infinite. Thus tokens were made to represent the value of finite resources. As long as the number of tokens remained semi-stable they could be swapped around to represent the swapping of natural resources while scarcity could be controlled through a ‘pricing’ mechanism.

But all the while there were issues. Rule Givers need Rule Enforcers. Rule Enforcers need visibility and a power differential, you can’t obviously enforce a rule unless you first know it is broken and then have the power to act on it. To increase visibility new rules were placed which more invasive. For more power, Rule Enforcers went to Science which gave them the special game tools called weapons. With greater invasiveness comes the need for greater evasion. More games within games. Greater and Greater weapons. This has actually been the chief game played by the Scientists in history. Making games tools for Rule Enforcers. What you read and learn in the school game is mainly PR. Another game.

Meanwhile, Science was breaking new ground and undermining Culture. Culture which was necessarily based on intuition and blind faith had no real defense. Scientific games were benefiting everyone but no one was paying attention to the long term effects. So we needed more Science to study these effects. But the Study of effects was no longer based on Nature but the study of the effects of playing Nature Games. Derivative Science. The results of these studies would have a great effect on the rules set by Rule Givers and thus it became a new game about who gets to play what game. Another fine mess. Necessitating the Making and Breaking of Rules.

Soon, no one new what the original rules were anymore. History, a game about recording and reporting old rules was written by the very people who had no interest in presenting them in a light unfavorable to the current Rule Givers. And new rules were made by studying old rules… more mess creation.

Soon, everyone forgot about Culture or Nature. Of prime importance was the creation of new games and new rules. But Rule Givers could only do so if the remained Rule Givers in the next iteration of the game. So of even more importance became the making and braking of rules and games to keep things the same while appearing to change everything.

Rule Givers understood that for this trick to work, a new game had to be created. Apparent Rule Givers (Actors known as Politicians) would play the game in public every few years, garnering votes, giving speeches and making promises. Real Rule Givers would remain in the background observing and controlling. And everyone who noticed this would be accused of playing the conspiracy game.

Makin’ and Breakin’ Rules: The Grand Game.

And that’s

The Vikid Truth

p.s. There’s so much more but I think you get the idea… go forth a play but always remember its someones game.