Games.

[Scribbly]

I have come to the conclusion that life is a game, pure and simple, more than that, in fact. That life is a game, and it has to be in order for us to survive as a species.
If one looks at humanity objectively, we certainly don't seem as suited to our environment as many of the other animals on the planet. We have to wear other things over our skin to keep out the cold, or else have to suffer as the sun actually burns us. Physically, we are weak. We don't adapt to our environment, we force our environment to adapt to us.

Of course, its easy to say from a modern point of view that that is fine, because we have technology to back us up and don't have to worry about physical worries quite as much as we used to. But, looking at human society objectively, I think I can see how the game instinct is necessary in this situation.

If we have to force our environment to us we are clearly born with an aggressive instinct- to say, screw this, I'm going to change everything else until it fits /me/

So, for the first few thousand years or so its easy to see how the game could be Us vs The Environment, and that worked great, because it gave us an incentive to work together to change everything to fit us as a group, we could all agree that we needed to be warm and have food... but we've won that battle for now. We have the environment pretty much how we want it- we can ignore it, we don't have to worry about the environment any more, except for the odd few cases where some mountain lion mauls a little kid before getting pumped full of lead, we have that pretty much in check.

So, when you can't turn that aggression to the outside, where do you turn it? Simple! To the inside! The Game has become ever more complicated, we built up a scoring system- money- we built up factions, and hey, you can even belong to more than one of them! You've got your race, your religions, how much money you have, what job you do (and if you do it for yourself, or if you are on someone elses team) and where does that leave us?

Well, if this crazy hypothesis is right, that humanity has evolved with a biological need to funnel an aggressive I'm Right You Change instinct, and all we have to channel that at is ourselves, well I suppose we'd get massive conflicts between opposing viewpoints, like the Crusades for instance, or the World Wars.

Oh look, yup, there we go.

So, we have the game in place, and its not a very good one. Everyone is a bit confused about what side they are on, or even what they are playing for any more... what can really be done about it?

Well, not a lot really. If you don't play at all, you don't get money, if you don't get money, its difficult to see how you can survive for long. Certainly  not with the luxury of things like computers, cars... all those modern luxuries that, now you've tasted them, it'd be a real bitch to give up.

So what? You can try and break the game, sure, but that won't work... you haven't got enough Points to make a difference in the long run, nobody does, its all Communal now, you put your points in a big pot to make your Faction win, because you can't win on your own.

All that is left to do is pick a faction, and play the game, and play it as well as you can. Who knows? It might even be kinda fun.

and that is the end of my babbling.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

8/10.  

Not bad, but you lost 2 points for assuming that more than about 10% of the world's population has any of these nice things.  

And life might be a game, but it's more like the games at Atlantic City and Las Vegas.  The odds are with the house, and it is a mathematical certainty that they will win in the end.

[LHX]

and the punishment for sucking is worse than 'lose 2 spaces'

[The Good Reverend Roger]

and the punishment for sucking is worse than 'lose 2 spaces'

And the punishment for being poor or weak is servitude.