Game Theory
There was a sign in the window soliciting paid participants for an experiment. This was on East 13th Avenue in Eugene, a block or two off the University of Oregon campus. I went in to inquire. It was an experiment to investigate human behavior. I was told something vague about research on how people made decisions in a group and that I would have to wait until there were ten people. I would get an indeterminate amount of money for participating, depending on the outcome of the experiment. It would take about 30 minutes.
How mysterious. I was intrigued. I had free time. I could use a few extra bucks. I signed up and sat down to wait. There was a lot of foot traffic on 13th Ave and it wasn't long before a group of ten experimental subjects had gathered. We were ushered into a room that had a big oval table with ten chairs around it. After we were seated we were each given a sheet of paper with the rules of the experiment and a place at the bottom to state our individual decision and write our name. We were told to announce our completion via a phone on the wall. Someone would come collect our paperwork and we would then get paid in cash within a few minutes.
The ten of us were left alone in the room. We sat in silence around the table reading the rules. The decision we each had to make was to choose either "self" or "group". The experiment was set up so that if we all agreed to share equally we would, as a group, get the largest total pay-out of money. If only one person chose "self", that person would get more money, but it would reduce the total pay-out and reduce the equal shares of the other nine people. If two people chose "self" the total pay-out diminished even more. The two greedy sons-a-bitches would each get less than if there was only one of them and everybody else would get less too. As the number of people choosing "self" increased, the whole scheme arrived at a tipping point where even the greedy sons-a-bitches got less than they would have if they decided for the best interest of the group. This did not, however, improve the fortunes of the pollyannas with a social conscience, who kept getting less and less and less as more and more people abandoned the concept of social benefit in favor of individual profit. And of course, in order to maximize their profit, profiteers would have to lie about their intentions and encourage everyone else to vote for "group". It looked like this:
0 self @ $0 each = $0
10 group @ $12 each = $120
total pay-out = $120
1 self @ $29 each = $29
9 group @ $9 each = $81
total pay-out = $110
2 self @ $18 each = $36
8 group @ $8 each = $64
total pay-out = $100
3 self @ $13.66 each = $41
7 group @ $7 each = $49
total pay-out = $90
4 self @ $11 each = $44
6 group @ $6 each = $36
total pay-out = $80
5 self @ $9 each = $45
5 group @ $5 each = $25
total pay-out = $70
6 self @ $7.33 each = $44
4 group @ $4 each = $16
total pay-out = $60
7 self @ $5.85 each = $41
3 group @ $3 each = $9
total pay-out = $50
8 self @ $4.50 each = $36
2 group @ $2 each = $4
total pay-out = $40
9 self @ $3.22 each = $29
1 group @ $1 each = $1
total pay-out = $30
10 self @ $2 each = $20
0 group @ $0 each = $0
total pay-out = $20
We were given no other instructions or guidance, but obviously we could discuss this verbally if we wished, though no matter what anyone said out loud, our final vote was secret. It was a truly diabolical experiment. A system begging to be abused. The raw and terminal truth of capitalist free market economy revealed!
It was a fairly mixed group around the table: 6 women and 4 men; young, middle aged, one woman in her 60s; dressed like students, retail employees, house wives, teachers—a reasonable cross-section of mostly white folks you'd see around the U of O in the early 1970s. For a few minutes no one spoke as we tried to decipher and digest the meaning of the paper in front of us, the problem these devious pinko social scientists had posed for us.
There was little discussion. Everyone seemed to get the idea well enough. Let's just say we are biologically disposed to spotting a potential advantage like this scheme presented. We are also socially inclined to share equally, especially when people are watching. That innate human conflict was the thing being measured in this experiment. A few people spoke briefly in favor of sharing the wealth. Others murmured assent. No one contested it. Everyone verbally agreed to do so. At least I think everyone moved their mouth or made some kind of gesture or sign of agreement. We were an unexciting experimental group. No leaders or fanatics emerged, nobody on a talking jag or in a crisis of faith in humanity. We wrote our votes on our pages and folded them closed, just like the pages said to do. Someone stepped to the phone and reported we were done. Our votes were collected and shortly after we were called out one by one to get our money in an envelope.
The amount we were given revealed the vote—one person out of ten had voted for their own profit, the rest had voted for the greatest, equally distributed profit for the group as a whole. I was suspicious of a young man dressed like a hippy student who made no eye contact with anyone that I saw and hurried from the room when his name was called, but who knows? I was a little disappointed in the outcome but still, I thought 9 out of 10 was encouraging. Pretty damn good really.
I took my $9 down the street to a natural foods bakery and cafe and treated myself to lunch. There was a young woman playing the harp in the corner and about 40 people sitting at tables or standing at the counter seeking food. By the time I got my sandwich and found a place to sit, the harpist had packed up and left. The babble of conversation took the place of her music for a few minutes but then a man seated in the center of the room stood up. A very ordinary looking man in his thirties—clean shaven with short hair, wearing khaki slacks and a sport shirt. He began singing an Irish ballad in a clear, soaring, expressive tenor that brought the room to absolute stillness. Conversation, cash registers, kitchen sounds, all ceased. Two people who had just come through the door froze in their tracks, their eyes riveted on this unexpected marvel. When he finished the song the man sat down again. The stillness in the room lingered. We were all a little stunned by the beauty of this spontaneous gift. I saw someone wipe a tear away. Several voices said thank you. Mine too.
Things slowly returned to normal, the muttering sound of many voices, the clatter of dishware, shuffling feet, sounds from the street, all that had vanished while he sang. I finished my lunch and left the remains of my profit from the social experiment in the tip jar.
Being Here Now
It's forty years on. Like many, I miss those days. They seemed like more humane times to me. We could say that what followed was decades of advance in the privatization of America and a globalized world. Private interests now have significant control of government, which means they influence foreign policy and military ventures, as well as legislation, regulation and government spending at home. Part of the mythos used to pitch this idea to the public was that the private sector would be an efficient and benevolent force, a natural force if you will... the so-called free market... Social Darwinism by any other name (e.g. Libertarian) if you ask me... guided by the invisible hand of the man behind the curtain... robber barons by any other name (e.g. philanthropist) if you ask me... trust us, they said... well, let's just say they have got away with it for a while now and their performance reviews are not good and are looking to get worse.
And you know, that was getting like... boring and disheartening... even while the doom scenarios gathered like black clouds on the horizon, the beat that was going on was the waltz of guns and sex and money, money power women, guns sex sex, money sex sex, give it to me now harder I, know it's for my own goooood, enlightened, self interest, sing with me now...
I have come to think of social movements as evolution rather than revolution. I have read some history and I have concluded that human beings have an innate wish to live in fair and just and safe societies. We have other innate characteristics too. Empathy collides with Dominance. Forgiveness collides with Revenge. Hope collides with Fear.
The conflict in our own nature is always our primary problem. Wicked kings, sadistic dictators, robber barrons and others from the dark side can't get far without some cooperation from the rest of us. They would just be laughed out of town. I suppose we call our lighter side humane because we are more at ease with it than with the vampire and zombie cannibals who look back at us from the mirror of pop culture. We are all a little corruptible. And predators will always be among us.
Balance is what we are seeking. All of life is constantly seeking a balance between the one and the many, the local and the global, the now and what's to come. Life is interdependent, symbiotic, co-creative as well as competitive. Life indeed tolerates parasitic relationships as part of its constant stirring... up to a point. A lot of our current problems stem from runaway capitalism, which we might call un-enlightened self-interest. Profit for a few at the expense of many is not sustainable when it becomes extreme. It is simply not how life works on this planet.
Occupy! is part of the current resurgence in the ancient desire to live in a fair and just and safe society. It's one of the best names ever for a movement, if you ask me. Occupy your nation. Occupy your culture. Occupy your world. Occupy your life.
It is such a total kick to see people rising up. All over the world. The young of today have been left all those doom scenarios gathered like black clouds on the horizon. They will have to deal with them and they are the ones who have the energy to do it. They have the talent and the will to do it. Theoretically, I had assumed life would find a way, because that is in its nature. I had assumed that if life had gone to all the trouble to create a semi-conscious species like ourselves, it would not allow us to kill ourselves off while we were still taking our toddler steps as civilized beings. I was impatient for some solid evidence to support my theory.
I think Occupy! is that evidence. This surging movement is rising up out of the ground of life and the hearts and minds of human beings. It is even smart. People have learned from the past, imagine that! They too, are a natural force that is resounding around the world, emerging before our eyes, before their own eyes, beginning the work of bringing the world back into balance. I think that's pretty exciting.
So thank you occupiers everywhere. Keep going, wherever it takes you.
Dean Kisling is a high school dropout who learned to type when he was 47. He has been a soldier, laborer, driver, welder, carpenter, musician, trailrunner and fool. He lives in America and is very happily married. He writes what happened and also makes stuff up. He has published stories on the web, in paperback, ebook, audio and video. His website is Pneumerology.com.
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