You can't beat the system?

[P3nT4gR4m]

Any system can be gamed

Effectively gaming any system is not equivalent to beating it

but it is tantamount to taking ownership

I'll repeat

ANY system can be gamed

Democracy is a system

Capitalism is a system

Justice is a system

All these systems and most of the other ones have been gamed by smart and/or ruthless players

They are now owned by the players

If a player owns the game they reserve the right to win each round by any means

They may change the rules and move the goals with impunity

because rules and goals do not apply to or constrain the owner of the game

unless the owner drop the ball

When this happens the system will continue to bounce

until another gamer takes ownership

[Aidian]

Sooner or later, all our games turn into Calvinball.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Any system can be gamed

Effectively gaming any system is not equivalent to beating it

but it is tantamount to taking ownership

I'll repeat

ANY system can be gamed

Democracy is a system

Capitalism is a system

Justice is a system

Discordianism is a system.  Anarchy is a system.  "Individualism" is definitely a system, and has most certainly been gamed.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Discordianism is a kind of anti system or meta system. I'm not saying it can't be gamed but there's limited reward for successfully doing so.

ETA: ... or maybe the whole point of discordianism is gaming the system 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Any system can be gamed

Effectively gaming any system is not equivalent to beating it

but it is tantamount to taking ownership

I'll repeat

ANY system can be gamed

Democracy is a system

Capitalism is a system

Justice is a system

Discordianism is a system.  Anarchy is a system.  "Individualism" is definitely a system, and has most certainly been gamed.

"Individualism" is a product, and we're the suckers that bought it.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Any system can be gamed

Effectively gaming any system is not equivalent to beating it

but it is tantamount to taking ownership

I'll repeat

ANY system can be gamed

Democracy is a system

Capitalism is a system

Justice is a system

Discordianism is a system.  Anarchy is a system.  "Individualism" is definitely a system, and has most certainly been gamed.

"Individualism" is a product, and we're the suckers that bought it.

Interestingly enough, "fascism" in the Roman sense of the word wasn't a bad thing.  Working together with a common purpose is good for the soul.

Of course, being humans, we managed to fuck that up royally, and now it's anethema.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Any system can be gamed

Effectively gaming any system is not equivalent to beating it

but it is tantamount to taking ownership

I'll repeat

ANY system can be gamed

Democracy is a system

Capitalism is a system

Justice is a system

Discordianism is a system.  Anarchy is a system.  "Individualism" is definitely a system, and has most certainly been gamed.

"Individualism" is a product, and we're the suckers that bought it.

Interestingly enough, "fascism" in the Roman sense of the word wasn't a bad thing.  Working together with a common purpose is good for the soul.

Of course, being humans, we managed to fuck that up royally, and now it's anethema.

We certainly did, and now we're dancing to the beat of our own individual drums, right toward the cliff. In individualistic lockstep.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I'm 41 and bitter because I've only just realized that I just spent the last 26 years of my life trying to figure out how to game the system, just like a good little consumer. Just like everyone else.

[P3nT4gR4m]

I'm 42 and happy as a pig in shit, cos I worked out my own little system and found out it works better for me than all the other gobshite I bought into, all those years ago.

I'm basically a practical hedonist - I do a bunch of shit I wouldn't necessarily choose to be doing in order to do the shit i want to be doing and taking that shit to the wall, regardless of social convention. I endeavor to limit the percentage of my time spent doing the former, to the favour of the latter.

All the other stuff, I observe, I discuss, but, other than on an intellectual level, I don't really give a fuck. My sphere of influence is miniscule. Very few people give a passing fuck about me and I return the favour.

The big system? The Machine? I can't avoid it. Wouldn't want to, some of it makes mundane shit easy as fuck but I try to limit how involved I get to the bare minimum. By some idealists standards I'm in to deep. From what I'd class as "normal" people's perspective I'm a bit out there but I don't present a threat to whatever bullshit they're wrapped up in. We get on fine.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I feel lucky on some levels because, in the absence of any cohesive social community in this society of alienation, I have managed to find a pretty solid group of community-minded people and made my own. I am really happy with my support system, although in the absence of a community ethic in the larger society I suspect it could be torn apart pretty easily by external forces.

[P3nT4gR4m]

I accept that there's potential for a tear-aparty situation but I refuse to dwell on it. It's never happened before, since I've been in primary school and I'm much smarter and a damn sight more agile that I was back then. Let them bring it. I'll holler and hoot and get as caught up in it as I can be arsed but there's always that issue of something else I'd have much more fun doing, dragging my attention away from whatever pernickety little - what society expects from me - gobshite. It's a no brainer for me. I have somewhere from fifty years to a century to spend and it's fucking mine and I'm fucking having it. Fuck anyone who wants to get in the way of that. So far no one has.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

What isn't a "system"?

[P3nT4gR4m]

What isn't a "system"?

ETA: Misread question - answer made no sense 

[Dildo Argentino]

What isn't a "system"?

"System" is actually a point of view that can be applied to anything. Anything can be a system. But overapplying the point of view generates disadvantage (it's called the aneristic illusion, no?). Underapplying it, also. Applying it just right... is not a system - in the sense that no "system" is capable of dictating the actions that will result in applying the "system" point of view just right.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I'm 41 and bitter because I've only just realized that I just spent the last 26 years of my life trying to figure out how to game the system, just like a good little consumer. Just like everyone else.

I'm 44 and I'm not bitter (well, at least not over this), because long ago, I learned to travel with the current.  In certain situations, you can make big changes for yourself and for others, by studying the current that is carrying you. 

This is NOT to say that I don't occasionally game the system or attempt to game the system.  It just means that it isn't an ambition of mine.