We are all players
We make rules and look to rulebooks to help us manage our interactions in games and in life. There are even rules for war. Of course, getting everyone to comply with all the rules all the time can be challenging and in many cases impossible. Yet we try. Order in society entails our support for institutions, laws, the rules of a game. Our lives in society are structured to such an extent that we follow different scripts in a variety of circumstances; those scripts guide our actions and communications in restaurants, stadiums, casinos, churches, hospitals, banks, battle-zones. Each kind of script requires a different set of behaviors, a different range of responses. Transitions from one to another are often difficult. Yet very often we make those transitions remarkably well.
Our scripts, games, rules are all inventions; we create them for specific purposes. They are all supposed to facilitate our activities and interactions with other people. Some serve our interests specifically, but all are a result of interaction and negotiation with other people.
We turn to rules especially because they help us transcend whims, emotions of the moment and the subjective judgments of one person or a group. One person's concept of fairness may not win everyone's approval. Rules help resolve disagreements and disputes—and help to prevent them.
In the cold calculus of Monopoly, for example, there is no support for charity. Players are not permitted to lend money to keep a player faced with a debt or with bankruptcy afloat. “MONOPOLY money can be loaned to a player only by the Bank and then only by mortgaging property. No player may borrow from or lend money to another player.” (http://monopoly-game.net/Classic_Monopoly_Rules.html)
Along the same line, an arbitrary distribution of properties from one player to another or from a losing player to remaining players, however fair one player may consider it, may not garner the approval of the others. In any event, there is no support for such a distribution in the rules of the game. At the least, such a ploy disrupts the remainder of the game and alters the outcome. It can also end the game prematurely—precisely what a disgruntled player might wish. To preserve the standards of the game, a loser, however regretfully, must exit gracefully.
The time we spend in gaming, and there is a lot of it spent by people around the globe, can give us some lessons about humanity. Game-playing affords us a few insights into the behavior of people as individuals and as members of a group, the operations of organizations and even the affairs of nations. The challenges faced by little groups are microcosmic reflections of society at large. In fact, politics in the world at large is very much determined by personal interactions—pleasant or painful, helpful or destructive. We get some appreciation for the complexities of relationships and the difficulties of decision-making. We note that just as individuals have to balance several distinct values that each claim our support, a nation also has to do so.
We want to enforce strict measures to maintain economic and political stability, even when our policies produce losses for individuals or organizations. And yet we also want people to get help when they need it to preserve their lives and well-being. We have less sympathy for those who suffer only minor setbacks. Our sympathies have limitations—and rightly so.
Banks are not obliged to lend money to anyone, unless the prospective borrower meets certain stringent requirements. They bear no responsibility to make exceptions to their rules. Banks that fail to manage wisely the funds entrusted to them can cause grievous harm to the country. And so we expect, even require our financial institutions to coldly calculate the risks and rewards of every transaction.
Some institutions, especially religious organizations, allow charity and even encourage it. Many secular institutions also embody the concern for the well-being of citizens. For those faced with financial difficulties beyond their control, bankruptcy courts manage the interactions of creditors and debtors when debtors do not comply with agreements.
The range of our laws and the diversity of our institutions reflect the breadth of our values. They demonstrate the extent of our concerns—from our regard for personal and national security and prosperity to our willingness to sacrifice our own time and energy—even our lives—so that others may live their lives in happiness, health and freedom.
In large part, history is about the making and breaking of laws and the responses to each of these endeavors. It is also about the dreadful effects of anarchy.
Laws are not immutable. Even a Congress short on accomplishment continually calls for changes to existing laws. At all levels, some people bend established rules or try to make new ones to serve their interests. That process may or may not create troubles. One variation in Monopoly allows the placement in the center of the board all fees and fines to be won by the next player to hit 'Free parking'--this despite the rule which states “A player who lands on the free parking space of the MONOPOLY game board does not receive any money, property or reward of any kind. This is just a 'free' resting place.” (http://monopoly-game.net/Classic_Monopoly_Rules.html)
Where groups agree to modify a game, the conduct of the game can proceed with order as long as everyone in it abides by the local rules. Contacts with players outside groups that support a variation, however, can lead to discussions or debates about what rules to follow. Those contacts can also lead to failures in attempts to start a relationship or to keep one going. Many fractures within families and nations, and many conflicts between them, have arisen from disputes over rules. Contacts of people from divergent cultures, from countries with very different systems of laws, too often lead to serious misunderstandings and conflicts. On every scale of society, from little groups to alliances of great nations, arguments over legislation and regulation can become strident and damage the prospects for communication and cooperation.
We are often very serious about the very trivial. While games are for recreation and amusement, and for the most part pass time that does nothing to change the world, we still demand that everyone playing them adhere to the rules. For if we do not observe them, we risk destroying the very reasons for their existence: creating opportunities to exercise our wits, savoring the interactions with family and friends, boosting our egos and, most of all, producing desired emotional experiences. Sports and games of almost every sort capture some of the drama experienced by the relatively few who are engaged in making history—drama on the grandest scale.
Life is not a game, nor can it be reduced to a set or sequence of games. Nevertheless, our lives in society cannot be separated physically or intellectually from the web of rules and laws we instituted to serve our various needs and desires. Ultimately, we must give up something in return for our membership in and the benefits we get from society; adherence to rules entails our submission to authority—if not the dictates of an individual or party, then at least a set of shared principles, be they in a bible, a constitution or a rulebook for Monopoly.