The Mental Game of Politics is "the Game"

The game you have "skin in."

The mental game of baseball is the mental game of life.  It is summed up by the advice that every little league coach gives to every player, “Keep your eye on the ball.”  It was illustrated as well by the old carnival shell game.  “Under what cup will you find the ball.”

The problem is distraction.  Baseball has pauses in the action.  The mind wanders.  You see someone you know in the stands.  You think of where you plan to go after the game.  In Little League the right fielder sits down and plays with the grass. 

In baseball there are two mental challenges.  Keep focused on the game, on every pitch, and plan for all contingencies. If the batter hits it to my left, where do I throw the ball, runner on second and two outs.  With increasing data on past performances, how do I position myself. 

And, second, like in the cup and ball game, handle illusion.  Deception is part of baseball.  A long history of trickery.   In the 1800s Harvard’s president thought the curve ball should be outlawed because it was deceptive.  Moral people, he felt, don’t deceive each other. 

But in life, especially in modern politics, distraction and deception is sometimes all we are offered.  There are issues and then there are “issues.” 

The slight of hand of political campaigns has always been to distract voters from their own actual interests and substitute what is either a non-issue or a utopian illusion. 

Citizenship is a game played for important stakes.  I. e. we all “have skin in this game.”   

We may make mistakes in playing this game. I have. We always lack the information that we need and get a surplus of information that we don’t need (generally expensively produced candidate ads on TV). We may choose the wrong team. (Fortunately, in this game it is honorable to switch teams.)

The amateur coach that I still am, forget the credentials, is trying to offer you the same advice I got from that long ago Little League coach:

“Keep your eye on the ball.” On the field playing defense for your team, and when at bat— in the voting “box.”

You can send a message just to me personally about this post and I’ll promise to respond: