Ploy Fatigue
Some people struggle to be straightforward and simple. Life for them is one ploy after another. They are caught up in the endless games of self-advancement and one upmanship. They seek to win, to win arguments and otherwise be a success according to some unspoken and perhaps imaginary societal metrics. In a sense they are always playing games. They cannot believe that their orientation is not shared by all other sentient beings, planetary or otherwise. They may suffer from paranoia and imagine themselves the victim of some malevolent games-master.
They would not recognise someone with an open palm and an open heart. Because such a thing to them is fictional and beyond their ken. They can be very self-absorbed and self-obsessed. They are unaware of what they have not yet nor ever will experience. All they see is ploy after ploy…blinkers.
Even where there is no plot they see one and are convinced thereof.
------------------------
“I've seen things... seen things you little people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion bright as magnesium... I rode on the back decks of a blinker and watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments... they'll be gone.”
“I've seen things you people wouldn't believe... Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion... I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”
-------------------------
It is safe to say that if you live life from one ploy to the next you will not achieve liberation. Your life with be governed by petty socio-political games which you cannot see beyond. Intrigue, gossip and pecking order are your vitals upon which you try to feed. It will not occur to you that others may not be susceptible to the methods of leverage which you have in your trusty play-book. Not everyone grasps after the same things. Not everyone drools.
If you live in ploy-world you will not be able to help yourself. First resort will always be some kind of ploy. It does not occur that someone might have ploy fatigue and be so utterly tired of this. Like Blackadder you forever seek the “cunning plan” even if it is a turnip. Because the love of cunning and being clever is paramount objectivity can easily be lost in the “excitement”.
It is very simple; ploys are causative of suffering both for those enacting them and those on the receiving end. If your ploy does not work you suffer, if it does work you thirst and hunger for the next junkie fix. Suffering.
Common sense says that hacks and ploys are clever. Common sense is not a synonym for wisdom.
Playing manipulative games cannot bring any liberation.
