One of the things that struck me in Douglas Rushkoff’s “Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus” was how much the line of thought on growth resembled the “infinite game” philosophy of James P Carse. In the former, the author explains how, as money becomes an end to itself as opposed to a means, a system built on a central currency gets into a growth trap. i.e. growth for the sake of growth. To frame it in the second book’s context, this tends to be a zero-sum game for all involved. There is a clear winner, and that winner takes all. i.e. a finite game.
Rushkoff explains how at this point in time, platform monopolies, (e.g. Amazon, Uber, AirBnB) and businesses in general, are playing finite games. And that is how growth has become the enemy of prosperity. In the second half of the book, he calls for more sustainable (and inclusive) ways of growth. This has much in common with Carse’ definition of an Infinite game, whose only purpose is the continuation of play, and sometimes, bringing more players into the game.
The objective in the worldview of both books is a more egalitarian society involving sustenance and inclusion. Its opposite is what is happening now, and Rushkoff is able to easily show examples. On the other front, evil, Parse feels, is the termination of infinite play. Not by the loss of a player’s voice, but from the loss of listeners for that voice – ignorance or (complicit) deafness. He further elaborates that evil is “to eliminate the play of another regardless of the rules.” Think about this in the context of what is being called “disruption” (generalising) by emerging and supposedly ‘sharing’ platforms like Uber and AirBnB, and how as consumers, we don’t really look at the impact on the larger ecosystem.
What stops us, who are also players of these finite games, from stepping off the treadmill? Many things, which requires a much longer post, but I found one interesting insight in a completely unrelated book – Gem In The Lotus. Apparently, at one stage of societal development in early Indian civilisations, prosperity seemed to breed melancholy. That is, when people were freed from the drudgery of daily living, the number of things about which man could be unhappy also seemed to multiply.
Not that I would absolve the growth manifesto from its ‘crimes against humanity’, but when I look around me, I do see that if removed from the growth machine, most of us would not be able to cope with the thoughts in our head. I experience a lot of it myself. And so, I wonder if this is a trade off. Be evil, (as Carse would define it) stay on the treadmill, and stretch the superficial happiness, for the melancholy could be worse! It’s not even a fair fight when you think of it.
