For most people politics seems like a "football game." In a very real sense it has that element. But for strategists politics is like a complex chess game in which each "Player" is like an entire football team. The "strategy" of football is all within one hour long game. But the strategy of chess is one of multiple iterations, and that of life is not just an entire football season, but an entire football league over multiple seasons. Such people think of themselves as Machievelli, but in fact are more like Dr. Faustus.
In truth life has elements of all the games out there -- but is very serious. Football, basketball, baseball, all the sports teach us things. Some even interpret their religion using sports allegories. I was once in sequence at a Bar Mitzvah and listening to some American Buddhists. Both used the identical allegory to explain their religious convictions. In America we worship at the shrines of Mammon, Baseball, Football, Basketball, and increasingly Soccer. This is a good thing. Games are a proxy for male warfare. At least few are literally murdered in a game. And one of those lessons -- is no one gets to win them all. One should never get too attached to the particular game -- it will end eventually and it's just a game. A winner is someone who can like the "Gambler" pass out of the game peacefully.
And in politics, the key is to make sure that when one plays the game no one dies either.
Posted by cholte at December 3, 2004 06:28 AM