Thoughts on Cheating, A Rant

Did you every play a game as a child where one of the players was blatantly cheating? And were you unable to stop that child from cheating because it was their game or their ball or similar? And if you wanted the game to continue, were you obliged to allow the cheating to continue?

This is the challenge with civilization and democracy. The aristocrats and oil barons, the oligarchs and old money families; they do not like democracy. They do not like having to play by the same rules as the so called lower classes. If all the peasants and peons can vote, they will vote the aristocrat’s power and privilege into oblivion. If the poor and the powerless can vote, they will vote for fair wages and safe working conditions.

So the oligarch and the aristocrat, when forced to accept democracy, subvert the process wherever possible. If they must play the game, they cheat. And if called on their cheating, they threaten to break the game entirely. They hold the game hostage, contingent upon their continued cheating.

This is why both tribal societies and Hellenistic Greek democracy had the option of exile. You need to be able to expel cheaters from the game if you want the game rules to be respected.