The Great Game

Some regard more the rigour of the game than the winning of it, but to the world the discredit of the final failure does away with any recognition of the previous care. The victor need not explain.

Baltasar Gracian - The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

It is clear enough that political actors, activists, senior bureaucrats and useful idiots are drawn into something far bigger than they are. It is also clear enough that whatever draws them in also moulds their behaviour.

Lies, misinformation, exaggeration, silliness, nonsense, bombast, overconfidence, cherry picking, sentimental appeals, flattery, abuse, superstition, histrionics, virtue-signalling, greed, supercilious stupidity and outright madness. It is all there in the public arena. All that shameful fraud and cheating must be facilitated by something powerful and enduring.

Disraeli referred to politics as the Great Game and it is still useful to see the public arena as a games arena. Political culture is an immensely complex and powerful game involving people, events, ambitions, money, status and influences. Plus malice. Malice towards outsiders is an integral part of the Great Game. There must be opponents and opponents must be defeated, threatened, abused or merely ignored.

The object of the game is social status where money and status are intertwined and even failure rarely closes the revolving door of opportunity. This is the gravitational attraction pulling in an endless parade of willing players. Usually charlatans but not always. The Game also attracts hordes of useful idiots as it appears to confer status and virtue for those in the stands.

We know the Great Game is real because we constantly see political actors and parties gaming everything thrown at them. They even try to game reality. When they succeed at that, the Game becomes more serious. Ministers, MPs, senior bureaucrats, celebrities, prominent experts and activists all game the system in one way or another. The Great Game draws them in because it offers more for less compared to the real, productive world.

The Great Game generates a vast array of tactics and strategies, varying widely from a raised eyebrow to a social attitude, a media interview, a new regulation, a major piece of legislation or an emotionally stirring speech. An important tactic is to abuse or to be offended by anyone who do not play, anyone who prefers to analyse the Great Game from outside the arena.

It follows that there is no point in expecting elected representatives to do two entirely incompatible things. They cannot both play the Great Game and at the same time reform it from the inside. That would be like trying to play football to different rules. Enter the changing room, pull on the kit, run out onto the pitch and tell the referee that the offside rule has changed. Doesn’t work like that.

Elected representatives disappear into the Great Game like professional players of any sport. As with professional sports they expect to be rewarded for their playing ability. Why else would they join one of the major teams, or political parties as we tend to call them? Why else would they become players in the first place? Not to change the Game.