The Game of the Beast

A Dark Truth

We are not moral creatures. We are adaptive ones.

The human animal is more fitting than the human being. An animal has the capacity to project it's 'social-face' in the pack hierarchy games it plays. Our social-face is more of an inter-face, highly optimised to harvest rewards and minimize friction within networks. It's the real currency of society and long established well before any coin was minted.

The Performance Is Total

The Milgram Electric Shock Experiments revealed something to us about our nature: if the framework rewards cruelty, people will justify that cruelty. The performance is total. That's why political leaders abandon their promises with performative U-turns—power is always the primary goal.

The mistake the intellectuals make is in treating this performance as a superficial mask. It isn't a mask; the octopus doesn't hold preconceived plans about when and where to camouflage—it just does it. The Arctic fox doesn't choose it's white coat in winter, the environment selects it. Our social-face operates the same way. It isn't merely a conscious deception. It's adaptive infrastructure, as biological as bone.

The Man With The Sexual Jest

Imagine a friend clocks an extended family member as someone to keep-an-eye-on. He's noted as a little bit flirtatiously inappropriate. It's quite sufficiently breeds doubt but there's not enough proof to warrant concern. The decision is left on the shelf, this bloke is a peeping Tom, at best. You notice him eyeing-up various females in the family regardless of age or relation. 

One day, he disappears upstairs to talk to your pretty daughter. He alone understands his game because he alone is playing it. You want to tell yourself there's a rational explanation—He's actually a nice chap.

The threat is never quite exposed or understood because the opportunist's opportunity is innate and subjective. If he is actually obsessed with your wife or child, for instance, his idea of an opportunity sits with his own secret predatory game. We don't know if he's lusting to hear flatulence, perve at ankles or if it's something sinister. 

The fearful sex pest may never move past voyeurism or touchism. Psychological manipulation or assault might remain in his head as fantasy—but within his conceptual space, the opportunity to entertain his goal is a vivid erotic stim, a reward for a miniscule interraction.

The Monster we all Trust

This pales in comparison to an infamous betrayer of trust like the major UK serial killer, Harold Shipman. We shouldn't think he murdered 'despite' his status as a revered village doctor; the animal committed those crimes 'because' his social-face was the deceptive mimicry seen in the predator hunting. 

The medical institution displayed the man's colourful attributes of health attainment—decorations of an Orchid Mantis. He posed as the orchid flower enticing his targets need to engage with him. His method was the morbid reality, the multi-faceted excuses are experts getting philosophical about it. Power attracts the psychopath.

The Shimmering Defence

Likewise, systemic abuse is not hidden behind the work of celebrity public charity. Again, these socially sparkling acts are the pattern of the behaviour. The more convincing the virtue performance appears, the more impenetrable their defense. 

Of course, our need for heroes, saints, champions does create room for exploitation. No predator invents these timeless games; they merely play along or cheat. Cognitive dissonance is the liar in our heads, painting a kinder picture of people. It denies the ugly reality of our dog-eat-dog world, a world most well-meaning people can't stomach. 

Everyday human beings commit adultery, steal, discriminate, backstab, bully or profiteer. Wealth requires poverty to validate its prestige. We know all of this, however selective blindness is a nicer reality. 

Chasing Power and Prestige

Here's a simple example. A recent Health Secretary, watching the gradual decline of public healthcare, quietly accepted generous financial donations from private medical corporations. It's vulgar to call it a conspiracy. Nothing clandestine happened here, because he openly accepted the money. It's fact. 

The key point? These practices aren't called corruption anymore. After the corrupt allowed this change to happen, we accepted it. That's the crux of it. Yeah, of course, things like poor crisis management gets more news coverage than 'Health Secretary takes private sector money'. 

An Unsentimental Acceptance

If you can accept we are the ultimate enablers, especially with how we demand ideal, strict moralised behaviour from leaders and institutions, then you're seeing that camouflage we build is pretty multi-layered.

Knowing this isn't nihilism or hope, it's a cold acknowledgement that recognising the game doesn't mean you're exempt you from playing it. This isn't a bad thing. It's a touch of insight. 

To beat this 'game of the beast' the direction has to be inverted, turning inward: honesty brings that self-awareness we need to unsubscribe from the worlds madness. It's about grounding yourself into the quality of introspection and the perks that come with it. It's all you can do.