scuffle

murderous instincts
sublimated in a game
with rules — football, chess
or conversation — somehow
we cannot help competing

We are so deeply implicated in evil. But people don’t see it. The game in my dream last night was something like Oriental Go played with giant counters on the entire floor of a room. Chess sets like that have started popping up on the streets of London here and there, with pieces a few feet tall. I like that idea. But in the dream, I just wasn’t interested in the end goal of the game as being to win. It’s strange though — everyone understands the importance of ‘winning’ even while knowing deep down there are other things even more important. There’s a current advertising campaign, fundraising for Cancer Research UK, which talks in plainly stupid (i.e. warlike) terms about cancer as the enemy to be physically annihilated. E.g. Cancer we’re coming to get you and Kick cancer’s butt. I find that sad and profoundly disheartening. Objectionable on so many levels.

maverick

you’re just quite simply
not a team player — face it
— so much resentment

I was arguing with a whole team of people involved in trying to put up a tent or monument. I thought it should be sited on the crest of a hill, but someone else had other ideas. I was quite distressed. I had been thinking yesterday about the phrase ‘team player’. I hate the phrase so much, and I don’t really understand why. I recognise teams are good for getting stuff done. Yet ‘team player’ also connotes mindless enthusiasm. The sacrifice of individual responsibility. Sport. War. Competition.