Tracking the United States' national embarrassment.

[FluffyMcDeath]

So it's actually about "owning the refs" and not about knowing how to play the game after all?

You're overly constraining the playing field. Corruption is about making the refs part of the team.

 

[Robert]

You're overly constraining the playing field.

And you're overly dancing around various ambiguous metaphors.

 

[redrumloa]

You're overly constraining the playing field. Corruption is about making the refs part of the team.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

And you're overly dancing around various ambiguous metaphors.

A game, in the usual sense is a rule set that allows for some specified winning conditions (you have all the cards or none of the tiles etc) and actions outside of the rule set are considered cheating and those rules must be enforced by an impartial authority but we know that in the wider game, and in game theory a game is "Any set of circumstances that has a result dependent on the actions of two or more decision-makers". For us little people the rules are set for us an enforced by authorities and the police, but once you rise to a certain level there are no police per se - the players and the police are the same people. Realpolitik. What problems can you create for your competitors, what rewards can you arrange for allies.
In the normal population psychopathy is relatively rare, 1% to 3%, but at the to of politics and business it's more likely to be the norm. Judging our politicians on the basis of "surely no-one would ..." is probably an unreliable rubric.

 

[Robert]

A game, in the usual sense is a rule set that allows for some specified winning conditions (you have all the cards or none of the tiles etc) and actions outside of the rule set are considered cheating and those rules must be enforced by an impartial authority but we know that in the wider game, and in game theory a game is "Any set of circumstances that has a result dependent on the actions of two or more decision-makers". For us little people the rules are set for us an enforced by authorities and the police, but once you rise to a certain level there are no police per se - the players and the police are the same people. Realpolitik. What problems can you create for your competitors, what rewards can you arrange for allies.
In the normal population psychopathy is relatively rare, 1% to 3%, but at the to of politics and business it's more likely to be the norm. Judging our politicians on the basis of "surely no-one would ..." is probably an unreliable rubric.

I don't disagree with any of that but I'm still not getting your point.