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In the Addendum to the Theory Section of TROM Dennis talks about what happens when a person looses a game. I was a little unsure about this material till I found an line in the book A View from the Bridge by Eric Townsend.
Quote from Addendum to the Theory:
Continuing on the subject of within-game ethics. A games rule is an
agreement between beings denoting permissible (right) play. Play outside of
the rules is considered improper and therefore wrongful play. Laws are
games rules denoting permissible play in a society. Thus, to accuse another
of a wrong action is to accuse him of acting outside the rules of the game;
it is to accuse him of unethical behavior.
A being, having lost a game played fairly within the rules, can either
accept the loss or attempt to imply that the victor had committed wrongful
play. There are the only two choices open to him. If he can convince his
opponent that he has committed wrongful play he (the victor) will believe
that he has behaved unethically and did not win the game fairly. The action
of assigning causation for wrongful (unethical) play to an opponent is
called blame. If the opponent accepts the blame he feels guilt.
The Blame/Guilt mechanism is pure games play. The purpose of blame is only
to permit the blamer to win games. Unable to win games any other way, and
having the need to win games, he resorts to the blame mechanism in order to
do so.
In that any life game has a near infinite number of possibilities within it,
and that it is clearly impossible to draw up games rules for all of them,
the Blame/Guilt mechanism is always available to a games player. There is
always some action he can point his finger at, declare it wrongful, and so
attempt to make his opponent feel guilty - and thus use less than his full
abilities in the playing of the game.
While reading A View from the Bridge by Eric Townsend he mentions that a
being on loosing needs sympathy
Punishment gives motivators
If a person is unable to do an overt back he will settle for sympathy. Thus
someone in prison for committing a crime against the society in which he
lives is experiencing the return flow for his action. He will see this as an
overt against himself and as a motivator for another action against society.
In the meantime, while in prison, he cannot do much against society so he
will instead seek sympathy (agreement) from others or from himself. The fact
that his situation or condition stems from his original actions is
'forgotten'.
Thus we get this sequence:
A and B play a game
A wins
B cant stand the loss graciously so
B accuses A of cheating. This is BLAME
A being not a perfect being sees some truth in the blame and feels GUILT
B needs sympathy and agreement from others that A is guilty so
tells everyone about it. This is Ridicule.
A exposed to ridicule feels SHAME.
Thus we get the sequence that Dennis mentions in the Addendum BLAME/GUILT
and RIDICULE/SHAME
Keep on TROMing
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