Perry Marshall’s Renaissance Club recently did a piece on, tired of losing the game? Change the game, sort of like if you don’t like the rules of the game, change the game. Which got me thinking, there is no game, no just kidding, well, there isn’t, but I think that is not quite a practical reality that bears discussion here at this point in time.
So I was thinking about rules, and I’ve talked about law a little already, but here I mean rules of the game in the context Perry was using it, rules of the arena in which one operates. For example, being polite in social situations is required by the rules. Perry was using the metaphor to refer to business, or a niche market, here I want to expand on the idea of rules of the game into the restrictions we place upon ourselves individually and as a group.
Backing up a bit, freedom is complete release from responsiblity and complete autonomy to do anything. Animals are truly free. They do what they want, whatever, whatever. Rules reign in and restrict freedom to the norms established by society. This is called law in many cases, and in many cases is not enforced, but just having the rules seems to give one a sense of security.
So the rules of the game, restrict and reduce freedom. This is what lawmakers do, reduce freedom. Usually they do this in a “big brother” “I know what’s best for the little people beneath me” attitude, here in the US anyway. So the desire to be a politician has its roots in a desire to restrict the freedom of others, the desire to dictate to others, and the desire to benefit society as a whole by doing thus. Problem is, it rarely works out that way.
I toyed with the idea of a politician who is the anti-politician, entering the realm of reducing freedom but instead making his or her platform one of “I am cleaning out all the old bad rules”. In other words, promising not to make any more rules, but instead, to get rid of the junk. Interesting thought that.
The rules of the game create the framework of operation within which we all operate, if we choose to participate, and even if we choose not to participate. Can we really change the rules of the game? The answer is a resounding yes, we can make them better, we can rid ourselves of bad rules, and we can make game changing modifications to our societies.
Will we? No…