Playing Games With Friends And Foes

Can we afford to stop investing in our demise?

a business magnate reads the newspaper with a smile while a factory belches filth into his own living room, digital art — by DALL·E

Understanding the rules of a game is essential if we intend to play it. The first thing we must figure out is what the objective is. The same game changes dramatically if the goal is something players must achieve collectively or if each player has an individual objective. Things can become even spicier if the goal is for the collective but the possibility exists for one of the players to be a traitor. The rules inevitably determine how we play the game.

When I had my first job as a teenager, I understood something quickly: the employer and the workers had opposed goals. The old-school business owner saw his workers as obstacles to his money-making endeavour. The young unskilled workers saw the employer’s methods as the reason they couldn’t work efficiently and safely. Understanding this was critical for me not to lose sleep over my personal belief in doing my best regardless of the circumstances. What is possible changes when we understand a supposed friend is a foe, and vice versa.

When reports show that the biggest oil companies are not only not committing to the agreed global zero-net-emissions by 2050 plan but implementing strategies to expand their empires by polluting more, some will be outraged. I will read the news with the same resignation my…