I found his discussion of the history (which I didn't even attempt to cover in the article) to be really interesting! As you said, it made me reassess my reactions to kingmaking and my assumptions of who should "win" a game. Definitely thought provoking!
I found his discussion of the history (which I didn't even attempt to cover in the article) to be really interesting! As you said, it made me reassess my reactions to kingmaking and my assumptions of who should "win" a game. Definitely thought provoking!
Indeed, the effects of the ideologies of empire and colonialism are always more far-reaching than we anticipate. To more or less regurgitate some of Cole's points, it's quite revealing that there's a relatively straight line from the 1800s mindset of games as tools for teaching a particular Victorian morality (around the same time as UK public school was formalized as a means of aiding the empire and the East India Company by raising governors, writers, and statesman specifically for that task) to modern conceptions of fairness in games and competition (including the endless metaphors for and from capitalism that we are inundated with now as ethical teaching and de facto life advice, seen as necessary for survival).
That continuity isn't a coincidence; it's an emergent effect of our societies being so structured by imperialism and capitalism.
I found his discussion of the history (which I didn't even attempt to cover in the article) to be really interesting! As you said, it made me reassess my reactions to kingmaking and my assumptions of who should "win" a game. Definitely thought provoking!
Indeed, the effects of the ideologies of empire and colonialism are always more far-reaching than we anticipate. To more or less regurgitate some of Cole's points, it's quite revealing that there's a relatively straight line from the 1800s mindset of games as tools for teaching a particular Victorian morality (around the same time as UK public school was formalized as a means of aiding the empire and the East India Company by raising governors, writers, and statesman specifically for that task) to modern conceptions of fairness in games and competition (including the endless metaphors for and from capitalism that we are inundated with now as ethical teaching and de facto life advice, seen as necessary for survival).
That continuity isn't a coincidence; it's an emergent effect of our societies being so structured by imperialism and capitalism.