CHEATERS vs SPOILSPORTS
Who is treated worse?
All forms of play have rules, which are absolutely binding.
If the rules are transgressed, the play world collapses; the game is over, and everybody goes back to ordinary life.
This is not the same as cheating.
The person who cheats pretends to be following the rules.
Nobody likes cheating or spoiling the game, but it is interesting to note that of the two the cheater is usually treated less harshly than the spoilsport.
The SPOILSPORT is generally ostracized from the group, and punished by being excluded because he or she has destroyed the illusion.
"Illusion" means literally "in-play".
This difference in the harshness of treatment carries over into ordinary life too.
There is more tolerance in society for the cheat and the hypocrite than for the apostate, the heretic, or the prophet.
This truly becomes interesting to observe in society.
Inside Christianity, for example, a sinner can be forgiven but an apostate or atheist cannot and will not be forgiven.
Cheaters can claim to be "only human" and express weakness and temptation and say, "I'm sorry."
The cheater acknowledges the rules are fair, that God is real, and the error was their own.
The cheater acknowledges the rules are fair, that God is real, and the error was their own.
But an Apostate points out the fallacies, breaks the illusions, and denies the power of those in control of the group. GAME OVER.
In JUDAISM, cheating required sacrifices but spoilsports were stoned to death. Jesus was executed at the instigation of Judaism's official administrators using Roman power.
Why?
He sought to destroy the power and authority of the administration. Big spoilsport! Emperor Constantine codified "differences" of belief into THE APOStLES CREED. That empowered the Catholic Church to wield EXCOMMUNICATION as a weapon over spoilsports.
The "Confessional booth" was for cheaters only.
Martin Luther was a spoilsport.
40 thousand Christian sects are the result of spoiling activity. Inside "Christendom" the Mormons, Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc. are seen as spoilsports -while, at the same time - inside the Spoiler religions there are spoilsports being excommunicated and disfellowshipped! You can cheat and confess but you CANNOT SPOIL the GAME!
In JUDAISM, cheating required sacrifices but spoilsports were stoned to death. Jesus was executed at the instigation of Judaism's official administrators using Roman power.
Why?
He sought to destroy the power and authority of the administration. Big spoilsport! Emperor Constantine codified "differences" of belief into THE APOStLES CREED. That empowered the Catholic Church to wield EXCOMMUNICATION as a weapon over spoilsports.
The "Confessional booth" was for cheaters only.
Martin Luther was a spoilsport.
40 thousand Christian sects are the result of spoiling activity. Inside "Christendom" the Mormons, Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc. are seen as spoilsports -while, at the same time - inside the Spoiler religions there are spoilsports being excommunicated and disfellowshipped! You can cheat and confess but you CANNOT SPOIL the GAME!
EverySociety develops rules and tolerates cheaters.
Society seeks to bind and destroy spoilsports such as
radicals, protestors, rioters, iconoclasts, insurgents, and terrorists who threaten to smash the ruling structure and introduce chaos.
The French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, etc. was a war between SpoilSports and Cheaters!
In politics, elected officials who enrich themselves and play favorites learn to go along to get along by cheating and bending rules - but the outsider who will not play the game cannot be tolerated and will be surrounded, reviled, and expunged as a traitor.
Trump? Yes, a real Spoilsport!
Recently a new strategy has evolved for spoilsports.
Flipping the script: the spoilsports mislabel the cheaters to "cancel them" removing their rebuttal altogether.
George Orwell called this DOUBLETHINK: persuading others to accept conflicting beliefs as truth, often at odds with their own memory or sense of reality.
We don't call it DOUBLETHINK today. Instead, we call it WOKE-ism.
Spoilsports decry cheaters before the cheaters can decry the spoilsports by preaching virtuous propaganda and shutting out everybody who disagrees.
What is the lesson to be learned?
What is the lesson to be learned?
Learn to apologize for your Truth and swear never to utter it aloud - or you'll not end well.
(The above is based on Huizinga's classic work on Play,
Homo Ludens.)
Play nice, kiddies.