I know we all like playing games of one sort or another and we are taught that engagement with other people in ‘sports’ is a central part of socializing ourselves to living in communities, but when we tend to make ‘everything’ a game we lose sight of what is actually important.
In the banking world we have seen something that has always been there – the chasing down of profits. Knowing where the money is and going after it for the bonus until making money becomes a numbers issue – divorced entirely from the reality that money is what makes our lives. And I am aware that the things that make our lives are more important than money but money is what makes everything possible because it is how we interrelate to people we never meet but upon whom we rely.
The law is another realm in which there is too much game play. Where winning becomes the aim and not the outcome of legal argument. Politics is filled to the brim with dirty tricks where upsetting how your opponent looks means more than what they say or could do in office. In fact there is little that has not been reduced to a game – of who you know and how much influence you can bring to bear and who you can sleep with to achieve your aim.
I don’t think nations built upon such extensive game-play can long endure.