What if somebody develops a mobile game and starts playing the game. Gets so obsessed with the game that winning the same game becomes his ultimate life goal. Probably we will call that person stupid. He has the capacity to design and develop many more such games and yet his obsession makes him not only look stupid but also takes away so many possibilities from him. Are we not doing the same as a society?
Money is one such game designed by human beings. Money per se has no value and the entire value lies in the minds of people. If society as a whole decides not to give value to money, money loses its entire value. For example, what is the value of Bitcoin? Nothing if people stop trading in Bitcoin and stop accepting the same. The dollar may lose its value if different countries of the world come together and decide not to accept the dollar as a mode of exchange. This may happen to any currency of the world. It is interesting that we all keep accumulating money in our bank accounts and create stories of safety and comfort for ourselves and our family members with this money. Since the majority of society is busy playing the "game of money", we all are busy accumulating more and more numbers in our accounts in the "game of money". We invented the game and got obsessed with the same.
Society is obsessed with so many similar games. For example, the "game of relationships". Relationships again carry different values depending upon the society. In some societies, marriage is sacrosanct while in many other societies, it's like a contractual arrangement. In some societies, siblings can sacrifice their lives for each other, they can take each others' lives for their selfish interests. Different societies play the "game of relationship' based on their own rules and reward system. Fundamentally, the game is developed around give and take. Investment and expectations both vary from society to society. The selfish human beings have to "give" to their relationships as an investment in the game and they get a return in the form of "care and concern" in their bad times. People become so obsessed with the "game of relationship" that they keep investing time and energy even in poisonous relationships.
Society is also obsessed with the game of power. Societies have created different power structures with distinct privileges. There are different sets of rules to ride the power ladder in different countries, In some countries, there is a dictatorship and the existing dictator is to be dethroned to become a ruler. In some countries, there are democracies and the people of the country have to be convinced, mostly by fooling them, that they will get what they want if they choose the politicians to become the rulers. The powerful works for power and then enjoy being powerful and then aim for more power. We, as a society, have become obsessed with the game of power. The game of power is not only at the top political level rather it is there in each organization and family too.
Society has another "game of validation" for the people who do not have the courage to play the "game of power". Here we behave like beggars rather than the rulers. Rather than playing the game to get powers to control society, the "game of validation" is played for validation from society. Players have to comply with the norms of society or pretend to comply with the norms of society. They have to prove that they are "good persons" and every time other players recognize them to be "good", they get a point. The higher the points and better the "social image" which becomes eligible for certain privileges. People get obsessed with this game as well and keep exploiting others and in fact, sometimes spend the points earned in other games such as the "game of money".
We are obsessed with the games we have ourselves developed. The funny part is that we have designed these games and have become so obsessed with the games that we keep exploiting fellow human beings and closing our eyes to their sufferings just to get a few extra points in the "game of money", "game of relationships" and "game of power", "game of validation" and so many other similar games. Whatever points we accumulate in these games are just a virtual reality. They have nothing to do with life. We may have thousands of points in any mobile game, but they are not going to serve any purpose in real life. Similarly, we may have a bank full of money, power, and validation of society and have so many relationships, and yet we may have to suffer disease, pain, stress, anxiety, and depression. On the contrary, the moment we realize that all these games are the creation of our own minds, we become free of these obsessions. We become aware of our capacity to design many more games like this. The obsession gets dropped and we again connect to reality and start working with our creative energy.
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