Players and Pieces

In George R.R. Martin's fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, the first book is titled A Game of Thrones.  Game of Thrones is also the title of the HBO television series that is the on-screen adaptation, largely (but not exclusively) for those not wanting to be unduly hampered with the possibly arduous task of actually reading something.  The title in itself suggests a way of looking at life...a worldview, so to speak.  In the struggles for power among hereditary houses of nobility on the make-believe continent of Westerlos, individuals seeking that power engage in a mishmash of schemes, conflicts, and alliances to defeat enemies and elevate themselves.  Some, like Queen Cersei and Petyr Baelish, wholeheartedly participate in this "game of thrones".  They also tend to recognize what they are doing and show respect to those like-minded, whom they appropriately designate as "players".  And what do they call anyone who isn't in on the "game"?  The pejorative term "piece".  You're just a "piece" (applied to doomed Lord Eddard Stark in the series) to be used and disposed of at the convenience of the players. And it's apparently the fault of those "pieces" who refuse to play the game...because they're in it whether they want to be or not.

Martin's fantasy world has its own limitations regarding its applicability to our real world, but the player-or-piece choice is present in our lives, whether we want to admit it or not.  Let's say you don't want to be a player in politics and stay home from the polls on election day, as does most of the electorate on a consistent basis.  Then by refusing to "play the game", you are then empowering a small number of very powerful people to unduly influence elections with heavy campaign spending targeted at getting their own voters motivated to go to the polls.  These "players" depend on you staying out of the process; by your absence you become a useful "piece" in their designs. Also, as a adult you are likely to be at least nominally involved in a number of groups, be they professional, religious, educational, charity, and so on.  It is the rule, rather than the exception, for people to jockey for power within even the most benignly reputed groups...and this can make someone like me want to just avoid them altogether.  For which, I'm sure, many within them regard me as a useful "piece"...although I doubt that they'd put it exactly that way. Still, I would be no more a "player" were I to become more actively involved...because there are two sets of rules: the outwardly expressed charter of beliefs and missions of an organization...and the inwardly unspoken rules of the "game of thrones", which tend to rule the day.  No, I don't want to play the "game of thrones"...and I don't want to end up like Eddard Stark either, not even figuratively...