Catanalism

By: Bethany Walter

11-11-2011

The night I was wearing this outfit, I was at Kelly Lynae’s abode visiting with her, her darling man, and another fine fellow. It was an enchanting evening. Kelly sliced vegetables and made sauce for pizza while darling man prepared and grilled a Caesar kale salad (Kale is my new favorite thing to eat).

While eating dinner, all four of us played a couple of games of Catan. Have you ever played it? It is a German board game where each player has their own settlements and they collect resources such as minerals, wheat, wood, and sheep. The more resources you have the more you can expand and build up your land. Part of the strategy is to trade resources with other opponents in order to speed up the rate at which you gather more land.

It was a fairly amicable game. We exchanged resources and helped each other out. As the game went on into the wee hours, things got steadily more competitive. During one part of the game, I acquired a special card that allowed me to collect any resource I wanted from all the players. I was very close to winning and I just needed some wheat. I slyly asked around to see if anyone had some. When no one wanted to trade, I pulled out the card. After that . . . grumpy-pants ensued. This made me feel terrible and I quickly lost the desire to win. Luckily soon after the game was over.

True that this was just a game, which everybody realized, but playing Catan made me stop and reflect. The objective of a game is to win. Within this context, I purposely deceived people to get what I wanted and was competitive to the point that I relished when someone else failed because it meant that I was winning. There isn’t any other other situation in life where I’d be able to like myself if I took the same approach.

This got me to thinking about perceived rules in life and how they affect everyone’s behavior. Living in a capitalist culture, the rule is to compete, make money, and be number 1. With these being the main focus, it makes it more unlikely that people will help each other and to rationalize competition at the expense of other people’s well being.

I am not implying that it is a good idea to get rid of capitalism. Catan would be a pretty boring and pointless if the objective was to give everything you have away and stop trying to win. There was one harmonious point in the game when people traded what they had in excess and still kept what they needed to succeed. During this time, the overall mood was friendly and it felt fun no matter who was winning. What if people worked capitalism this way more?

Old man sweater: Urban Outfitters (Price: $40 2+ years ago)
Man’s dress shirt: thrift store (Price: $10)

Beret: regifted (I have been wearing this hat since I was 16 when I gave it to my mother for Christmas and she never wore it.) Woven belt: thrift store (Price: $1.99)