The "mental-game" - individual and political levels
marcitko
Veteran
Dear all,
Some things have become clearer to me lately so I share something I wrote yesterday. We've had elections yesterday so that got me thinking... Feel free to share your thoughts, questions, perspectives, criticisms...
I am going to present a crude categorization of our „states/levels of mind“ which I claim can be categorized into higher and lower. Based on a poker analogy, I call these states A-F. I observe how these states of mind are playing out in my current (individual) life but also how they have historically played out socially/politically in my country. All of this is crude but I hope illustrates the point that our spiritual/philosophic/existential understanding can operate at a multitude of levels, that the content of thought/belief is relatively predictable while on a certain level, and that these levels can be observed both on an individual and social/political level.
I understand that some members will shoot me down because I talk about levels, instead of a strict dichotomy between clear/enlightened and unclear/deluded or a non-dichotomy between any levels. However, observing both myself and the world around me, it does seem to me at this time that the unclear/deluded camp can be further broken down/categorized into varying degrees of unclarity/delusion in a helpful way. I do not claim that I have „solved the riddle“ but offer only preliminary thoughts on the issue.
The „mental game“ – a poker analogy
- Stay with me, I'm using poker only as an analogy and entry-point 😊
Winning professional poker players talk a lot about and practice the „mental game“. The mental game is the state of mind one is in while playing poker. The mental game is hugely important as it directly and in a large measure impacts the profitability of an individual poker session. At the extremes, while playing their „A game“, poker players can implement easily and in full their technical knowledge of the game, as well as their intuitions and „reads“. This provides for a very profitable session, excluding effects of luck ie. over the long term. At the other extreme, when playing their „F game“, poker players are said to be „tilted“ and their mind is totally clouded by negative emotion and/or substances and/or irrational thinking and/or tiredness etc. When playing their F game, excluding luck ie. over the long-term, even professional players playing against the same opponents as in the previous example are usually losing money. Since poker players classify their mental game into A-F grades, I'll do the same in what follows.
Towards a categorization of levels (philosophic/spiritual/existential) of individual states of being (A-F):
- as observed just by me for my current overall state of being over the past few years.
- note: Even though my therapists tell me there is nothing fundamentally wrong with me, I have had a historical (10+ years) problem with mental-health. Hence, your mileage may vary in the specifics, but I suspect that you might be able to find the same phenomenon of levels of states of being in your own life, they will just manifest differently in your life.
- I find that the content of thought is relatively predictable while in the various levels ie. I tend to think about similar things while in the A-F states.
- I find that I can quite easily imagine a lower state while in a higher, but have difficulty imagining the higher, while in the lower, even though I have experienced it before or even recently.
- I find that some activities/behaviours/thoughts (ie. the good/positive/wholesome) tend to push me "up", while others (ie. the bad/negative/unwholesome) tend to push me down.
- I find that over the long term - depending on my actions ie. creation of new karma - the "whole landscape/ladder" moves up or down.
A) I find everything to be easy, clear, direct, humorous
B ) I experience moderate amounts of anxiety but can function well
C) I experience strong anxiety and moderate compulsive/forced negative thoughts; can still function at a moderate level
D) I experience strong anxiety and strong compulsive/forced negative thoughts and hypervigilance. Difficulty functioning.
F) Mental-health breakdown, retreat from the world.
Towards a categorization of levels (philosophic/spiritual/existential) of group political thought as observed by an example (A-F):
- based on a simple model. This model is not thorough or all-encompassing but rather aims to illustrate the point that the political differences between the Left and Right can at different times and/or for different political actors be of a higher or lower level.
- as observed by me in Croatia, examples of levels taken from the past 85 years ie. since during WWII. The biggest issue(s) between the Left and Right in your country, or the way they have historically dealt with the issues presented below, may be different. However, I suspect that the main point that there are levels - holds also in your country.
- Of course, this is a crude model. There are always parties and actors outside this model or who act on a different level during a time where the majority acts on a particular level.
- The example taken are the attitudes of the Left (L) and Right (R) towards priests, businessmen, national and religious minorities in Croatia over the past 85 years, a period which has included two big wars, and three political systems: nazism/fascism, communism, and liberal-democracy (all three of a local variety, but generally of those types).
A) Not sure I've seen much of this level, but here's a possible sketch: Everyone (L+R) agrees that everyone should participate equally in the political and social system, there is cooperation towards a mutual benefit taking into account the different and appreciated differences in values/interests/goals/etc. There is high social trust in the populace and between groups. Conflict exists but is minimal and there are efficient ways of dealing with it. (this paragraph should be improved).
B ) Everyone should participate equally in the political and social system BUT
L: harbours mostly unspoken suspicion towards priests and businessmen
R: harbours mostly unspoken suspicion towards national and religious minorities
C) Everyone should participate equally in the political and social system BUT
L: expresses huge contempt towards priests and businessmen
R: expresses huge contempt towards national and religious minorities
D)
L: priests and businessmen should be excluded from participation in the political and social system
R: national and religious minorities should be excluded from participation in the political and social system
F)
L: priests and businessmen should be shot
R: national and religious minorities should be shot
F-) 
L: priests and businessmen are actually shot
R: national and religious minorities are actually shot
To end on a lighter note, here are some follow-up questions:
- Is it helpful to categorize your level of state-of-mind into (say) A-F states?
- Do you observe them changing in your life in this way?
- If so, is what and how you are thinking about while in the various states relatively predictable?
- Taking a historical view or looking at various present political actors, can you observe the same/similar A-F states of mind playing out in the political sphere?
- Insert and answer your own question 😊
Thanks for reading and I hope you have an excellent day!
Comments
I've heard somethings along those lines, though it isn't concrete in my head. Something like higher and lower order politics.
For myself I probably wouldn't categorize so much. But for the purposes of directing social policy that sort of thing is often helpful.
I plug in peripherally to some organizations that seek to raise the level of political discourse and I think what you laid out in grade A seems to be the ideal they're working towards. I think there is room, and likely a fair bit of value, for the passionate and radical in a healthy political world. I think it becomes dysfunctional when the extremes take control and start setting the tone and the overall rules of the game.
As a moderate I'd also throw into your lower grading scales that as it degrades there is an increasing demand for ideological conformity with increasing penalties for non compliance.
I put a lot of the blame for the degraded political world today at the feet of social media. When the printing press was established and the gatekeepers of knowledge were bypassed lots of new ideas were able to proliferate. Eventually we all landed at a better place but not before centuries of religious and ideological wars over which ideas were right. Part of the message of the book The Constitution of Knowledge that I'm slowly working my way through is that the current information landscape has blown apart much of our sense making apparatus and its letting in lots of bullshit and groupthink that was formerly checked.
I think it kind of corresponds to people’s degree of reasoning ability when making voting decisions, and their degree of idealism. A lot of republican voters in the US seem to me to be borderline insane and perhaps even dangerous to know. The Netherlands has its own right wing voters but many of them are just financially conservative.
Certainly the volume of socially-relevant information we consume has increased. “Blown apart” though sounds rather hyperbolic and I’d appreciate seeing that substantiated a bit more.
Maybe the situation is different in your part of the world. Over here there's a large degree of people not knowing what or who to believe, trust in media are at all time lows. But "blown apart" may be on the hyperbolic side, I'd say that our sense making apparatus has deteriorated to a bad place.
There's plenty of similar articles, google "trust in media".
The Netherlands was fourth out of 46 countries in confidence in its media, with 56% of people thinking the national media gives an accurate accounting. There is a strong publicly funded broadcaster and several good newspapers. 1 in 7 people in the Netherlands think you need to be more critical in assessing the news and its sources.
My two pence...
Politicians have been busy making a very large hand basket....one made by weaving from left to right then right to left....
You are welcome. I didn’t. Just skimmed through. Too long winded and therefore untrustworthy for me.
I recently voted for Count Binface for Mayor of London and two Green candidates in local district elections.
Rishi Snack, the current unelected P.M. Illionaire of Corporate England, identifies as a Buddhist. He practices weekly fasting days to keep himself small.