Spread the Virus.

I recently found out that US and European political philosophies have been based on a concept known as Game Theory. Game Theory was originally exactly what it sounded like, a theory to explain how games work in a mathematical sense - for instance, a game of poker or bridge.

It automatically assumes a certain simplistic and robotic mindset on the part of the players, that being that their aim is simply to win the game. In other words, they are selfish. That's fair enough so far and, since this is a mathematical construct, makes a fair amount of sense. To carry on the example, a poker player looks to their own advantage in a purely selfish way and a pair of bridge players look to their own advantages by using each other for mutual advantage.

I'm sure you get the idea by now. Everyone is out for everything they can get, in a self-centred way, and even mutually advantageous cooperation is used as a method, ultimately, of personal advancement. A good and solid theory for something relatively simple like a game of cards.

The problem comes when game theory is taken out of context. In the 1950's a gentleman by the name of Anthony Downs started to apply game theory to other things, such as the social interactions within a hotel, and since then the meme has spread. Game theory is now applied to all sorts of social and political models to predict how things will work out: economics, voting, social interactions, even family relationships! In each case the basic premise is that the individual is working entirely for their own advantage. It's known as "enlightened self-interest"

This really bothers me.

One thing that concerns me is that I find it hard to believe that people are really that unpleasant. Okay, people as a species have shown themselves to be pretty crap, but individuals are all different. Not only that but different at different ages, in different places and at different times of the day. As proof of that compare yourself as a twelve-year old on a summer holiday, and now first thing in the morning on a working day. To base any form of government on such a simplistic assumption can't be right, and personally I find it insulting.

Further to that there's the problem of enforced pattern creation.
Madame Blavatsky's friend, Col. Olcott discovered that he had the power to heal. He didn't believe it himself, but on a stay in Northern India (I think, please correct me if I'm wrong) people came to him for spiritual healing in the mistaken belief that he could do it. So he pretended, and the more he pretended the better he became. That's pattern creation: if you act a certain way for long enough you create thought and habit patterns, neural circuitry if you like, that make you that way.
Enforced pattern creation does exactly that, but from the outside. If you treat a person a particular way strongly enough for long enough then they will become that way. This is basically how most forms of brainwashing, social control and education work. Consider then that we've been told implicitly but increasingly that selfishness and personal advantage are good and noble things for the last 50 years. "Enlightened self-interest" is now the norm and it's very difficult to think outside that pattern, or even to realise that it's possible to do so. It takes a particularly strong, or obnoxious, individual to stand up to that kind of pressure.

So, what's the way out?

Well, if a mental prison or social control structure is based on the assumption of particular behaviour patterns, then to break the bars of that prison requires new and opposing behaviour.

And what type of behaviour is that?
How about spontaneous and pointless generosity that gives no personal advantage whatsoever?

There's a link on this blog to a thing called the Generosity Game. The Generosity Game is very simple: You go to, say, a shop and buy your stuff. You also buy something extra (it doesn't have to be expensive) which you then give to the shopkeeper and say something like, "Please could you give this as a gift to the next person who comes in". You also leave a card with it which says "Now it's your turn". Then you leave the shop. You don't leave your name.

Insane? Well, if insanity can be defined as non-normal behaviour, then yes!

What you've just done is a tiny act of anonymous and beautifying rebellion, the precise opposite of what you've been told all your life; that you're a selfish git. What you also do by leaving the card is to (a) challenge another person to free themselves from the social norm and (b) spread the meme.

Spread the what?
A meme is a trendy word that means an idea, a thought, a neural circuit. The current overriding meme of our present life is "enlightened self-interest". A religion is a kind of super-meme. In playing the Generosity Game or something similar we are spreading a new meme, which works like a virus. Under the right conditions it infects people.

Sadly, personally non-advantageous generosity isn't a strong meme at the moment, but with time and effort it can be. When it becomes an epidemic it may well save the world!

Spread the virus! Let's make "enlightened self-interest" sick as a parrot and then provide the cure.

Love,
Seán