Playing the Infinite Game of Life
When we feel helpless, we feel miserable. For most of us, the feeling of having no power, no control over people and events of our life is unbearable.
I do not know anyone who would want to have less power, less control over the events, people, and circumstances of their life. Everyone, admittedly or not, without exception, consciously or unconsciously, wants more power, more control over the events, circumstances, and outcomes of his or her life. However, in today’s chaotic world and fast changing times, it is dangerous to appear, to be perceived as too power hungry. It is dangerous, even suicidal to be too openly overt with our power moves.
In today’s chaotic world and rapidly changing times, for anyone wanting to score big, for anyone wanting to build the life of his or her life, to live the life of his or her dreams, one must seem fair and decent, fair, and civilized. One need to be subtle, congenial yet cunning, egalitarian yet devious. In today’s chaotic world and rapidly changing times, while appearing to be the very paragon of elegance excellence, in the subtlest of ways possible, one must outwit and thwart his or her opponents, everyone standing in his or her way.
In today’s chaotic world and rapidly changing times, in his or her quest for control over people, events, circumstances and outcomes of his or her life, all your power moves are to be made indirect. Instead of using coercion or outright treachery, one must get his or her way through seduction, charm, deception using subtle strategies and, more importantly, always planning several moves ahead. When necessary to stab someone in the back, you must do it with a velvet glove on your hand and the sweetest of smiles on your face. Life today is a never-ending game that requires constant vigilance and tactical thinking. Life today, contrary to the old times, the ancient times, is an endless civilized war.
Erroneously and hopelessly, in today’s chaotic world and rapidly changing times, everything must appear civilized, decent, democratic, fair, and politically correct. But for anyone playing according to these rules too strictly, taking them too literally, more than often, one will be crushed by those around him or her who are not so foolish and reckless. It is my experience that any man who tries to be good always is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not so good and do not care about decency, inequality, democracy, and justice for all. It is my experience that any man who tries to be good always is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not so good and only care about one thing: Themselves. Today’s society likes to envision itself to be the pinnacle of refinement but, underneath its glittering surface, a cauldron of dark emotions, greed, envy, lust, hatred, boils, and simmers.
To thrive and even survive in today’s chaotic world and rapidly changing times, in a society that likes to imagine itself to be the pinnacle of fairness and enlightenment, while appearing to respect the niceties of a politically correct world, unless he or her is a fool, one has to be prudent, master the arts of indirection, learn to seduce, learn to charm, deceive and subtly outmanoeuver whoever may stand in his or her way. To thrive and even survive in today’s chaotic world and rapidly changing times, in a society that likes to imagine itself to be the pinnacle of fairness and enlightenment, one must quickly learn to masterfully play the infinite game of life, the infinite game of success and power: Making people, institution and organization bend to your will without realizing what happened and what you have done. To thrive and even survive in today’s chaotic world and rapidly changing times, in a society that likes to imagine itself to be the pinnacle of fairness and enlightenment, one must quickly learn to masterfully play all the power games of the infinite game of life, the infinite game of success and power. Doing so, if you play the game masterfully, elegantly, and artistically, nobody will ever resent, resist or oppose you in your quest for success and power, in your quest for more control over the events, people and circumstances of your life, in your quest to life the life of your dreams.
To some, this notion of consciously playing power games, no matter how indirect and justified they may be, may seem evil, immoral, and asocial. Mistakenly believing that it is possible, instead to play an infinite game, to play a finite game by behaving in ways that have nothing to do with power. Beware of such people! While expressing their anti-power-games opinion and resentment against everyone playing such games as outwardly as possible, they are often among the most adept players at the game of power. Under the cover of morality, equality, fairness, and social justice, they use power strategies to cleverly disguise the nature of the manipulation involved. As an example, they will often display their weakness, their lack of control over the circumstances of life, the fact that they are part of an oppressed minority as a kind of moral virtue. Complaining, demonstrating, manifesting, revendicating, making a show of one’s weakness is actually a very effective subtle and deceptive strategy in the game of power. This is in no way opting out of the game of power. On the contrary!
Another strategy of the self-proclaimed communal and ethical non-players is to demand equality for all and everyone in every area of life. For these self-proclaimed egalitarian non-players, whatever their origins, their environment, their gender, confusion of gender, status and strength, abilities, or absence of abilities, whatever the circumstances, they wrongly believe and promote the idea that everyone must be treated alike. They ignore the fact that treating everyone equally means only one thing: Ignoring their differences, elevating the less skillful and suppressing those who excel. The result: A morally depraved and diminished society! Again, for too many of those self-proclaimed social and moral non-players demanding equality for everyone, they all are simply deploying another power strategy: Redistributing people’s rewards in a way that they wish to determine themselves.
Another way of avoiding playing the game of power, opting out of the game of power, would be perfect honesty and straightforwardness. But again, it is my personal experience that, more than often, being perfectly honest would, and do, inevitably hurt, and insult a great many people, too many people, and some of them will, and do, choose to retaliate, and injure you in return. It is also my experience that no one will, and no one does, see your honest statement as completely objective and free of some personal self-interest and motivation. And, in most of the cases, they would be right. In truth, as a matter of fact, the use perfect honesty and straightforwardness is nothing else than a power strategy intended to convince people of one’s noble, good-hearted, selfless character. Perfect honesty and straightforwardness are nothing else than a subtle form of coercion, a form of persuasion, nonetheless.
Finally, for most of those self-proclaimed social and moral non-players of the game of power, more than often, to protect themselves from the accusation that they are after power, they will affect an air, an aura of total naïveté. Beware! More than often, the appearance of naïveté can be a very effective way of deceit and, even genuine total naïveté is not free of the snares of the game of power: Genuinely innocent people may still be playing for power and are often horribly effective at the game. Once again, beware! More than often, those who make a show or display innocence may later reveal to be the least innocent of all. You can recognize these so-called non-players by the way they flaunt all around their moral qualities, their piety, their exquisite sense of justice. More than often, distracting us from their power plays with their air of moral superiority, these self-proclaimed social and moral nonplayers are merely throwing dust in our eyes. If you observe them closely, you will see and soon realize that, in fact, they are often the ones most skillful at indirect manipulation.
Today, in these chaotic and fast changing times, the world is every day, more and more, becoming like a giant scheming court in which, like it or not, we are trapped in. Like it or not, believe it or not, there is no use in trying to opt out of the game: That will only render you, render one powerless and miserable, and if one is already powerless and miserable, it will only render him or her even more powerless and miserable. Instead of struggling against the inevitable, instead of arguing and whining and feeling guilty, it is far better, for anyone who wants to thrive and even survive in this world, to excel at the game of life, to excel at the infinite game of life, to excel in the infinite game of success and power. In fact, the better you are at dealing with success and power, the better friend, lover, husband, wife, and person you become. By doing so, by becoming a source of pleasure to them you make others feel better about themselves and they will grow dependent on your abilities and desirous of your presence. If the game of life, the infinite game of life, the infinite game of success and power is inescapable, better to be an artist at mastering the game than a denier or an ignorant bungler.
J. Michael Dennis
Free Speech Absolutist / Personal & Corporate Fixer
Michel Ouellette JMD, ll.l., ll.m.
Systemic Strategic Planning / Regulatory Compliance / Crisis & Reputation Management
Skype: jmdlive
Phone: 1. 613.539.1793
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Michel Ouellette / J. Michael Dennis is a Former Attorney, a Trial Scientist, a Crisis & Reputation Management Expert, a Public Affairs & Corporate Communications Specialist, a Warrior for Common Sense and Free Speech.
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