It has been insightful reading news articles and political commentary as 2012 came to an end. There was relief with the brief reprise from the political drama. Then there were individual politicians holding press conferences with posturing, grandstanding, criticisms and promises that next time the results will be more to his wanting. This was generally followed by the disturbingly continued use of yesterday’s news today as justification for political election plans years from now.
I was surprised to find most news articles in these fevered days before the automatic funding cuts placed focus on the coinciding expiring tax cuts and not sequestration itself. The latter is the far larger problem but its impact on the constituency is less direct than the then pending tax increase.
Perhaps because it is a significantly more complicated, politically charged issue, it just makes a more difficult, rare story. Perhaps this is the nature of politics, but to me it has the feeling of another poorly-scripted reality television show.
(Are you feeling lost in what sequestration is? The State of Arizona’s Department of Education contracted for an excellent summary on that here http://www.azed.gov/no-child-left-behind/files/2012/07/sequestration-cheat-sheet.pdf)
My question: If we made such little progress over the preceding 15 months, even with a bi-partisan committee formed to address the matter, what will be done differently in the next two months to avoid repeat of December 31. I do not see public reactions from politicians encouraging or desiring this. That is disturbing to me. Today’s colloquialism describing this is “to kick the can down the road” to describe the constant state of delaying the tough decisions.
I am suddenly reminded of “Finite and Infinite Games” by James Carse. In his book, finite games are those governed by an agreed upon set of rules and have a defined beginning and end. The rules cannot be changed and the object of the game is to win. The outcome of the game is not known beforehand. An example would be a football game. The players and spectators know the rules, but no one knows for certain which team will emerge victorious. Games do not have to be games or sports in the traditional sense and can be fun or serious. War, for example, is a finite game played until one side concedes victory to the other.
Conversely, in an infinite game the goal is the keep the game in play. Hence the rules must change if they will bring the game to an end. It is a game without a defined beginning or end. The philosophical example in his book is life. The book then continues on to provide other lenses to view the world that, while not contradictory to this writing, would generate unnecessary clutter.
As I watch college football Bowl Games I contrast them with politics. Interestingly, politics seems to be morphing into an infinite game. Politicians, regardless of ideology, seem to prolong their time in office by avoiding the difficult questions for fear of failing re-election.
This exposes a critical flaw in American government. What is the career path of a politician? What does a 45-year-old politician do after holding elected office for only a single or a few terms? There is not a compelling incentive for politicians to leave and there can be a sharp penalty for leaving voluntarily or involuntarily through a failed reelection campaign.
This introduces career politicians who act not in the finite game of a term but rather as the infinite game of maintaining political careers. This conflict of interest between politicians and American citizens drive politicians to avoid difficult conversations and accountability. These are both aspects of a finite game and run contrary to the career politician’s interest of an infinite game.
This maladaptation of the political process in not in the spirit of the Philidelphia Convention which drafted the US Constitution. As history tells us, this was not a document created by unanimity. The divides were startling and only 39 of the 55 delegates signed the final document. Yet decisions were made in the interests of the country that were not to the complete satisfaction of all. All of this happened in less than four months, between May 25 and September 17, 1787. I cringe in dismay that the current Congress, irrespective of political party, could not accomplish a fraction of such a dramatic feat.
An interesting twist is that the finite games of political terms provide the necessary conditions to inspire action today. For they inhibit procrastination and self-serving delays with a limited time for action before one’s replacement arrives. This continual renewal is needed to protect perhaps the most important infinite game: freedom.
Common Clarity 