Game Theory

“AN ACT OF WAR”

by Gunnery Sergeant John McClain, USMC, Retired, ©2012, blogging at Gulf1

(Sep. 2, 2012) — Game theory has been around since the earliest times, and while some modern “games” are different, some remain almost exactly as they came through the ages.  Its purpose is to teach strategic thinking, provide a field of battle upon which to confront, and the opportunity to practice without dying.  There is no moral or immoral in “game theory;” the games, each of them, have firm, fixed, hard, established rules; one plays by them and wins or loses based on skill, strategy and little else.  It’s all about the physical exercise of war, and not at all about right or wrong, just about win or lose.

This was not something used in the design and establishment of our government.  Our founders aimed at something never entered into seriously before – the design of a government, made deliberately at a time when there was a need, but no form present, and from a setting down, practical application “workshop” with some of the most facile minds in history, focused not only on purpose, but with a large value placed on Faith in God, and an expectation of God’s felicity upon the thoughts being shared.

The Constitution as established was in a number of ways a compromise with the principles espoused in our Declaration and providing the foundation for a government serving the purposes we declared “self-evident” as to a proper nature, with the success in putting fifty five men in a convention and have them produce a form and set of laws establishing a fixed, principle based government, being nothing short of a miracle.  That its form was established with measures precisely designed to easily alter its form for strong and powerful reasons, but fixed in principle to the point nothing less than principle, would be sufficient cause to bring about the efforts that could complete an amending process was in its self a miracle, at least to those who have seen, experienced, and considered such gatherings of men for such purposes.

For close to a century, the established purpose of the government, its limits as spelled out, and the exactitude of the meaning of the Constitution was held to, and few in congress arrived with intent other than to administer their office properly, in accordance with the rule of law which is the constitution.

By the late 1800’s, a substantial number of politicians had accumulated who questioned the purposes of government as established, with the most notable ones doing so clandestinely, the perennial had arrived, with their intent of taking advantages of weaknesses, and assuming power.

The other group a society has to contend with is the “socialists.”  They are a people who gather under the ideology of assuming the control of a society by undermining its principles and precepts and substituting their own, and thereby taking power by pitting members of a society against each other, and in achieving chaos, have the “perfect storm” from which to establish their form from.

The means is simple, ancient as man, and consists of noting disparity of outcome, and suggesting it the result of disparity of opportunity rather than the more logical and observed, disparity of effort and enthusiasm.

For this group, the ideal is not looking for the best means for the betterment of all, but to assume control of such a society and undo the construct which has served them in the past with equanimity, and for the purpose of taking control of another society, “game theory” becomes a proper, logical means to an end.

While it developed for the purpose of practicing thinking in terms of war, and learning strategy, it became a method of group dynamics for the purpose of overthrowing forms of established government, and it became a form of war, in and of its self, practiced when a well established society shows no physical weak point to be attacked.

An active, educated, thoughtful society will be full of individuals with differing ideas of how to prosper and yet have no purpose to provide a government to tell us the best means, and impose it upon all of us, but intend solely to have the freedom and liberty to test our own theories, and compete.

In a society which has found a rational way to govern, which serves the majority very well, serves the minority well enough, while it may be perfect for none, it is close enough to equal for all, than none is willing to break the paradigm, knowing that miserable forms of government are the common form, and any form which leaves such well behind, is already clearly in the better interests of any society.

Socialism will be put forth as political theory whenever a people have found an egalitarian means of getting along, because it is an easy thing to mistake for political theory, and with facile lips, a person can convince many that it is such; however, the fact remains it truly is simply among the least aggressive forms of war, best suited for dividing people from a group ideal where all can compromise on small things of little consequence, in public venue, but who retain the idea and intent of their own prerogatives in their individual and personal lives.

Applying “game theory” to politics is an act of war, not one of politics, as it is setting out to alter the political system during its use, but without the permission of the Sovereigns who have approved the current system, who established it as the sole legal means of producing egalitarian law, in a minimalist form proper for an Independent Self-responsible Sovereign Citizenry.