Our world is a metaphor of a metaphor of a metaphor. I can see how president Bush and his neo-uber-alles friends of the Project of the New America Century represent the understanding of a world made of metaphors of games rather than a world made of metaphors of life. Refer to the US domestic policies and you see the metaphor of a game where the rich get richer at the expense of others; refer to the US foreign policies and you see the metaphor of a game where the United States searches world dominance at the expense of any other country.

It was some years ago that I discovered the eventual economic fallacy about ranking and competition, and only recently did I realise the related fallacy of dealing with the economics of Game Theory when we have the choice of dealing instead with the economics of Systems Thinking (or System Dynamics).

With the economics of Game Theory we try to apply strategies to win over our perceived adversaries at any cost as all the gaming parties will eventually race unintelligently to the bottom. With the economics of Systems Thinking instead, we try to apply strategies to win at the advantage of everybody else as all the gaming parties will eventually race intelligently to the top.

The economics of Game Theory uses any imaginable tools to win over the perceived adversaries, and when applied to world dominance, Game Theory uses the power of money, the power of lies, and the power of military force as we have been experiencing for example with the Bush&Co administration.

The economics of Systems Thinking uses instead all imaginable tools to win over ourselves, and when applied to have a better world, Systems Thinking uses the power of democracy, the power of integrity, and the power of peace.

Another world is possible beyond Game Theory, that is the shrewdness to think for the sake of winning at the exclusion of others, and it is called Systems Thinking, that is the capacity to think for the sake of winning at the inclusion of others.

References

Pertinent articles published in Ensign

Zerbisias, Antonia Chaos, or Just a Little Vase They're Going Through? April 12, 2003 Toronto Star http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0412-05.htm

System Dynamics Society What is System Dynamics (Systems Thinking) System dynamics is a methodology for studying and managing complex feedback systems, such as one finds in business and other social systems. In fact it has been used to address practically every sort of feedback system. While the word system has been applied to all sorts of situations, feedback is the differentiating descriptor here. Feedback refers to the situation of X affecting Y and Y in turn affecting X perhaps through a chain of causes and effects. One cannot study the link between X and Y and, independently, the link between Y and X and predict how the system will behave. http://www.albany.edu/cpr/sds/index.html

deSantis, Mario Game Theory versus System Dynamics July 27, 2002 http://www.ftlcomm.com:16080/ensign/desantisArticles/2002_600/desantis673/gametheory.html

deSantis, Mario An exemplified description of Systems Dynamics: Small events can have large consequences January 11, 2003 Ensign http://www.ftlcomm.com:16080/ensign/desantisArticles/2002_700/desantis735/chaossystem.html