A game of change?

If it seems like I have been belaboring the themes of competition and perception over the past few posts, it is only because I have been. We like to think that we live in a terribly complicated, overwhelming world, but in fact, beneath the surface of seemingly unfathomable detail and confusing connections, there is a nice strong layer of principle that can help us make sense of the seeming chaos on the surface. We get confused by all that's happening on the surface because we are distracted by everything that is happening there. If we can learn to look beyond the distractions, we find that things are actually much simpler, and perhaps easier to deal with. We, as a species, have come to believe certain things, but just like our example of the rising and setting sun, what we believe may not reflect reality, so we need to stop for a moment and try to look beyond the apparent details to what is really going on.

The recent government shutdown in the US and the almost ludicrous coalition negotiations in Germany have really hammered this point home with me. In the US, a small portion of one party is forcing the whole party to act in that small portion's interest. The whole party, which received the minority of votes in the last election has been trying to undo that election since it happened a year ago. The only ones who suffer because of this, of course, are the people. The shutdown is hitting those hardest who need government support the most. In other words, it's not about the good of the people, what is best for the country, rather it is simply a small minority forcing everyone else to go along, though, fortunately, this time, they are getting resistance.

The situation is not all that different in the German coalition negotiations. How many of which parties meet to start discussing possible options and how many ministers will go to which party in the government that would be formed are all paramount. There is a lot of posturing about who "won" and who "lost" the election ... again, framing the discussion in competitive terms. None of the groups who met have actually won anything, there were more people who didn't vote for them than those who did, but here too, it's not about the good of the people or what is best for the country, rather there are small minorities trying to force everyone else to go along. Unfortunately, there is not as much resistance as there needs to be.

The bottom line is that we are still being ruled by minorities. I'm not going to go so far as to say that democracy has failed. I don't think we've ever really experienced it to find out. We have been erroneously led to believe what TPTB want us to believe, and most of us haven't resisted enough to think for ourselves. Hey, as long as everything is going fine, and I'm getting what I think I deserve, then why should I make waves. The next thing you know someone's going to show up and take it away. But what if what I think I deserve isn't what I deserve at all? What if there were others who were more deserving? And while we're at it, how do we figure out who deserves what to begin with? In the competitive environment that we have come to believe is the "natural" one, only a few can win and the vast majority must lose. That is the simplest description of how we are managing things?

Two million years of human existence, and we're still being bamboozled. How proud we must be.