The Game

 Civilization is like a game you're forced to play at gunpoint. You cannot win and they gaslight you if you ask any questions. And they are constantly trying to convince you this is the greatest game ever. The sad fact is that most people do not realize that they are playing the game against their will. Since birth we are conditioned to the game and expected to play, in fact we are not given a choice to not play the game. We have no choice, but the illusion of choice is there. We are told that failure is not the design of the game but some fault of our own. When we see other people in dire circumstances it is immediately assumed it is because of their own poor decision making, not the system, that is the cause. Others will say it is the fault of capitalism, which is working as intended. That is partially correct as a critique of capitalism is good, but it is not enough. We must look at the civilization itself as opposed to whatever "ism" is running things. 

Monopoly, originally called the landlord game, was developed to show just how awful capitalism really is, and anyone who has played it can attest to the game being unfair, but rarely apply that to our own current condition. However we can opt out of monopoly or any other game, be it before the game starts or during the game at some point. But notice if you quit the game the other players get upset, maybe even taunt you to stay and play. So its sort of self regulating in that the other players keep other players playing, like in life other people keep others playing the game of civilization. If someone decides they don't want to play and go live wild and free, they are ridiculed, mocked, and looked down on in most instances. Much like "civilized" people look down upon so called primitive people. It is almost as if "civilized" people came upon wild people, realized they could not convince them that civilization was better and so forced them into the game or just killed them outright. 

This is the pathology of the disease we call civilization. Most of us are so domesticated that we cannot allow others to live free and wild. We find it odd or disgusting to think that someone would want to live in the wild apart from civilization. We glamorize the ecocidal nature of civilization, its penchant for killing those who cannot keep up or those who do not want to play the game but are stuck playing anyways. We glorify what humankind has accomplished without realizing that the march of progress is actually a march to our death. The great toll that the march of progress has done to the planet and all its inhabitants is something we conveniently ignore. Yet we keep patting ourselves on the back for all the supposed good we have done in the wake of our destruction.