The Game
There’s an old song that’s been on my playlists since I first heard it in 1998 — He Got Game by Public Enemy. Check out the poetic lyrics. They ring as true now as ever [1].
Whenever I’ve taught the section on empathy and compassion in the Search Inside Yourself program, it brings about a lively and sometimes heated discussion; is there place for empathy in the workplace? How can you possibly be both compassionate and effective when making difficult decisions like having to fire someone?
A few months ago I was teaching a program at a company in Gurgaon, India; and the same sentiment came up:
I’d love to be compassionate, but when I come into a ‘corporate’ [environment], I cannot be empathetic — we have a job to do!
Something about the way it was worded, and the context of where we were caused an explosion of insight in my mind.
Colonialism
Colonizers may colonize a country through brute force. But they don’t rule a country through force alone. Colonies exist because the majority of the ruled accept the status quo (I’m not saying they like it. But they accept it in the way that many currently accept that Donald Trump is POTUS). They exist because of a colonization of the mind. When a few dissenters rise up, they are cut down like weeds.
1 outta 1 million residents
Be a dissident
Who ain’t kissin’ it
But when an entire peoples refuses to accept the status quo, their sheer numbers cannot help but topple the colonial regime. The power dynamics of few over many cannot work once a critical mass of people question the legitimacy of that power. [2]
Corporations
So when I heard that comment about ‘corporates’, it struck me. We have allowed our minds to be colonized by the ideology of the corporation. We make all sorts of assumptions about our lives from 9am to 5pm — what we can and cannot do, how we should and shouldn’t behave or dress, how we speak, and what it means to be ‘professional’.
We have allowed our assumptions about some abstract corporate ideal dictate to us how we treat our fellow human beings and our planet.
Folks don’t even own themselves
Payin’ mental rent
To corporate presidents
Play to Win
So what do you do when you’re in a colonial environment? I imagine you figure out the rules of the game, and you play to win. Want to provide for your family as a ‘native’ in colonial India? Learn English, work for the British Army or Civil Service. Want a good job as a Britisher in colonial times? Rise up the ranks of the civil service (preferably posted in a country where you can get adequate domestic help) and make sure your work is directly helping fill the imperial coffers.
We are no different, today. We figure out the rules of the game and get a well paying job, manage other people, manage managers, and so forth. Maybe we’ll even run an entire company. Maybe to play the game really well, you first make lots of money, and then invest it in others while pulling strings of influence behind the scenes to maximize the returns on your investment. [3]
Or don’t play at all
In each colony, there were probably more than a few people who saw that colonialism didn’t need to be the status quo. But it took a special few people to turn that into a movement, so that the prevailing paradigm shifted, and could no longer be subdued by the few and powerful.
What does that look like for corporate colonialism?
I know I’m still playing the game (though closer to the sidelines), and still operating from a fear/scarcity mindset. From where I stand, it seems irresponsible and impossible to step out of this game; it’s so baked into all of our structures. But that’s always how it seems when you’re inside it.
How am I going to pay for my kids’ college? How can I afford to provide them all the enrichment they need to do well in this world?
It’s similar to how most Googlers I know (including myself when I was still there) quiver at the thought of leaving:
Can any other job be even half as good? What about all the amazing benefits? I’m so comfortable here!
If you’re reading this and you’re not at Google, that just seems nonsensical. But that doesn’t make it any less true when you’re there. Instead of mocking ‘those entitled, cushy Googlers’, take a moment to note all the ways in which you might feel trapped in your career/life. Consider that there could be someone that sees your trappings as self-imposed. What game are you (we, I) stuck in?
It might feel good
Sound a lil somethin’
but Damn the game
If it don’t mean nuttin’
What is game? who got game?
Where’s the game
In life
Behind the game
Behind the game?
Back to the cushion
Are you ready for the real revolution
Which is the evolution of the mind
If you seek than you shall find
That we all come from the divine
You dig what I’m sayin’
Now if you take heed to the words of wisdom
That are written on the walls of life
Then universally we will stand
And divided we will fall
Cause love conquers all
How trite: ‘Love conquers all’. Or is it? I don’t know.
Maybe the sublime turns trite when you’re blind to the searing simplicity of truth.
This is a call to all you sleeping souls
Wake up and take control of your own cycle
What does it mean to wake up? And how do you do it?
I absolutely don’t think meditation is The Only Way. Or even The Best Way. But in my experience it’s been a predictable way to approach the journey. Developing a high resolution self awareness allows us to see cycles that trap us, and to see the ways in which we affect, and are affected by the people and things around us. So while I can’t say that I yet fully believe that Love Conquers All, I’m not yet willing to dismiss it either.
[1] I want to also acknowledge that the song He Got Game speaks about race and inequity in America. It’s not my intention to co-opt or distort the important themes in that song to make my own point. It’s just that I don’t feel qualified to say much about those topics.
[2] related: Sapiens (and the idea of pervasive Myths)
[3] Or maybe, more generally, you figure out how to control factors of production (land, labor, capital, entrepreneurship)?
[4] This yet is another post that I’ve written, sat on, and pondered for about six months. But after hearing Anand Giridharadas on NPR the other day, I figured it’s time.
