Game analogue to life

The candid picture at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo.

It is very interesting to note that most of us are often asking several philosophical questions, such as -

(i) How should we live in a society?

(ii) How should we behave? What is success? How to become successful? Many more.

For a guy/girl just crossing a teenage, it is always very much confusing. They are oscillating between the do's and don't of their society.

Unfortunately, I also went through such stages but still couldn't find the answer. But over the period, I just moved with smaller life goals or targets. Correct or not correct, I am not sure about that, but still, it worked for me. However, the challenging part is ethics that many of us do not keep to reach success or while fulfilling our life demands.

For me, life itself appears like a drama where everybody including me is acting. All of us are not speaking from the heart but always speaks what needed to be spoken. Over the period I also learn to speak the way society needed me. Telling lie has become prevalent. People often confuse themselves between lie and truth. I often ask what urges one to do so.

But well, I found a logic for moving forward in life. It is debatable.

I find life to be analogous to the chess game where you sit as a player and protect yourself from defeat and you also try to defeat your opponent ("life circumstances"). The game has a defined rule, and we have to act accordingly. Similarly, there are societal or work etiquettes that put constraints ("life problems") in achieving our goal. This also justifies our action as an attempt to protect our self-interest or interest in large (even related to others).

We often see that our interest is not met or it is affected by life circumstances. When we think of life as a game, we may realize failure as our own fault since we fail to protect our interests. It's also true that we cannot always win with our opponent, still, I think we can give them a good challenge. My belief is that we should use the liberty to protect ourselves or should at least learn from the moves of our opponent.

PS: This article is completely my view so it is not universal.

Comments

Santosh said…

Nicely articulated Hisay. Taking an ethical and honest decision in life can't always be wise. Even in game of chess, we sometimes use tactics and tricks to win matches. Using tactics and tricks doesn't mean to violate the rules. I think, even from an ethical perspective, life shouldn't be rigid.

24 December 2020 at 03:56

hisay said…

@Santosh Thank you for the comments. I agree with your view.

24 December 2020 at 20:19

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