Don’t Play the Power Game.

Everyone’s a betting man. Don’t think you’re not. Life itself is a poker table, and when you take a job or get married or have a kid or a friend, you throw some chips on the table based on the hand you’re dealt. Maybe this woman won’t cheat on me, maybe this company won’t fall, even saving money is a bet that that money will be worth the same amount it was when you go to the bank to retrieve it. When I was a very young man, I made a bet. I bet on the long term supremacy of the United States, and I bet that the leaders in charge of my safety as a Marine would use me in a way that benefited the nation, even if it cost me my livelihood. I made that bet over a decade ago now. Now I’m deciding to fold, leave my losses at the table, and move on.

I got a single peek behind the curtain, and I saw the truth. Sure, I was at my own table, with the people in my life and my opportunities doing my best, all the gains and losses and players in my little world. But the table I was playing at was circular. I lifted up the table cloth, and I saw that it was just another chip, a chip in someone else’s game. A much larger game. All of what I considered “the table” was a small, infinitesimally small asset to someone else. So small that the person betting me was not aware of my existence. Only the number of people like me he had to gamble. No matter what happened on the table I played on, it wouldn’t stop being a chip in someone’s bet. No matter if I won or lost, the outcome was beyond me. The meager winnings at my table paled compared to what the bigger players had. I was simply a chip being bet.

I did see, for a brief moment, a glimpse at the bigger better’s hand. He’s bluffing. I do not know to whom the pot will end up once everyone shows their hand at the end of the game. All I know is that I win nothing if he wins, but I lose everything if he loses. This game is being played with players we can’t even imagine, on a scale that is so large we are merely specks to them. Conscientious objection. Certainly. I object to war. All war’s ever been about is someone wanting something they don’t have. I am not betting on the side of America, or her silent handlers, or theirs, in fact, I’m not betting on any player at all. I’m simply getting up from the table and finding some other life outside of their game. The game is so big, they won’t even notice my absence. I’d like to keep it that way.

Don’t play the power game. The house always wins.