Articles by JOHN HARDY on ArticleSnatch.com

Is It Really So Nice To Be Nice?

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 22:19:37 -0400

Niceness is the zeitgeist of today. When our ancestors look back through the filter of time, what is it that they will find noteworthy about the people who live in this century? It will not be our valour, nor our cruelty. In both, we have been far surpassed by our forefathers. Nor are our achievements in the arts likely to stand out, as there have been golden ages in the past far more refined than our own period. It will not be our reason, intellectual insight, or mental agility, since these qualities have been in abundance well before the dawn of this century. No. Instead, I would suggest that it will be our niceness which really distinguishes us from those who inhabited other epochs. This niceness should not be confused for genuine kindness or goodness. It is, at its root, an obsession with being thought well of, not merely by our peers, but by the entire TV audience. Niceness is a sham; sugar-coated narcissism. What lies behind kindness is genuine caring for the other. The energy behind niceness is somehow cloying, as if you were imploring someone to like you. The former is generous, the latter obsequious. **End Summary** Topics: niceness]]> political correctness]]> kindness]]> phony]]> authenticity]]> relationship]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .

Budapest Tales: A Case Study In Narcissism

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:42:22 -0400

Have you ever wondered how it is that there is a certain type of character, narcissistic to the core, almost comically over confidant and smug, who despite a lack of talent or virtue, seems to coast through life, achieving far more than those who surpass them in every way. From my time living in Budapest, I still have a fond recollection of a pair of stories reported in the local paper, which speak to this topic. In the first story, a young woman was out for a run in a residential area in the southern part of Pest. Out of nowhere, she was set upon by a vicious German Shepherd, bounding towards her with murderous intent in its eyes. The dog chased her for several blocks and would have mauled her had she not changed course, jumped a fence, ran across a park and jumped into the Danube. Fortunately, for our heroine, it was winter, and the dog having an aversion to cold water, elected not to pursue her. **End Summary** Topics: narcissism]]> relationship]]> entitlement]]> gratitude]]> Budapest]]> Hungary]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .

Is Libertarianism Nothing More Than The Glorification Of Greed And Irresponsibility?

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:47:29 -0400

The faith in the sanctity of the market is the bedrock of the Libertarian creed. It is not so much a philosophy as a religion- only in place of a benevolent God, we have the omniscient market. The market is seen as a perfect, self regulating mechanism. The implication is that, it is far better to let the market take its natural course, than intervene and cause much greater disharmony in the long run. Supporting their hypothesis with innumerable examples of bungled attempts by governments to meddle in the economy, their basic ethos is: the less government the better. This argument is a bit like someone arguing that we should fire the gardener of a beautiful English style garden in which nature appears to be a cacophony, which naturally makes room for all and finds its own harmony. If one were to follow this advice and fire the gardener, for a time there would be very little visible effect. Nature would carry on, the seasons would bring changes, and life would appear to be going on very much as it had been before. **End Summary** Topics: libertarian]]> government]]> conservative]]> wall street meld down]]> economic downturn]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .

Are We Trapped In A Web of Myths

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:24:30 -0400

As you look around you, do you ever get the feeling that something is going on? Have you ever suspected that some gargantuan joke is being played, and that there are some people who are having a great laugh at our expense? What if there was an artificial order imposed upon our random, chaotic existence? What if the architect of this order was not God, or Satan, for that matter? What if its creators were not Gods, or even Nietzschian supermen, but very ordinary human beings with a keen insight into the weaker side of human nature- people who were manipulators par excellence. Our world is encapsulated in a matrix, an artificial structure, which has been imposed upon us all. However, if this is the case, how can it be so resilient? How can it survive all the tumultuous rises and falls of civilizations and empires throughout we have experienced over the last several millennia? The answer lies in its being firmly rooted in three basic aspects of human nature. The first is a primal need for authority. **End Summary** Topics: satan's joke]]> mind control]]> manipulation]]> sociology]]> free your mind]]> matrix]]> game]]> player]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .

Has Science Replaced Religion As The New Orthodoxy?

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:48:54 -0400

In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was the arbiter of truth in the West. Even when confronted with incontrovertible evidence supporting the fact that the planets revolved around the Sun, rather than the Earth, they clung to their own antiquated, variation of the truth. Now, it seems the tables have turned and science, or rather conventional science, has replaced the Church as the guardian of orthodoxy. An example of this is the contention that, unless something can be measured and quantified, it does not exist. Extra sensory perception provides us with a good example. A phenomenon for which there is strong anecdotal evidence is dismissed as charlatanism, simply because it does not lend itself to being readily simulated under laboratory conditions. By extension, anything that is not measurable is treated as non-existent. In our world there is very little that is truly measurable. For instance how does one measure kindness, graciousness, dignity, or love? Only the most diehard of the scientific realists would subject all their emotional attachments to their family and friends to the same ruthless scrutiny. **End Summary** Topics: new age]]> spirituality]]> dark ages]]> science]]> linearity]]> enlightenmen]]> Christianity]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .

An Intimate Glimpe At The Puppeteers Who Are Pulling Our Strings

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:21:51 -0400

Just the other day I was at my local cafe and could not help overhearing a conversation between a small group of hedge fund managers at a neighboring table. One of the young Turks was addressing his fellows, complaining about how the media painted them as the enemy. Another chimed in with a remark about how they did not make the rules, nor did they break them, they merely worked them to their own advantage. A third then pointed out that no competition is perfectly fair, there will always be winners and losers, so why whine about it? With that, the first speaker proposed a toast to finding a chair when the music stops. Bravo to the players! They are the masters of the universe, the winners in the big game. They are the magicians who create the scams, draw in the suckers, and then take them for all they are worth. As one looks around the table, they are all uniformly well tailored, well coifed, and self satisfied. Each is unashamedly out for number one, but collectively they seem to form a kind of tribe. **End Summary** Topics: player]]> con man]]> manipulation]]> game]]> hidden game]]> deception]]> misdirection]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .

In Nature There Are No Straight Lines

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:11:24 -0400

In nature there are no straight lines. The entire notion that we can order our world according to some artificial linear box is absurd. If we look at our daily lives, our families, our work place, our social interactions, nothing conforms to a strict set of rules. An excellent example of this is drawn from my own experience in Cairo. Anyone who has travelled to Cairo can attest to the fact that their traffic is almost beyond comprehension for a North American. Wide avenues with no lane markers accommodate over 12 lanes of traffic. Though there is a traffic light system, the drivers are completely oblivious to it, and proceed when an ebb in the traffic affords them an opportunity, rather than in conformance with the lights. Miraculously, the traffic moves. It moves far better than it would if everyone were to observe the regulations scrupulously. I have no doubt that should all the drivers be magically replaced by North Americans, the entire city would come to a stand still and very soon there would be a rash of road rage related homicides. **End Summary** Topics: life skills]]> lineartity]]> cartesian]]> spirituality]]> non-linearity]]> flow]]> essence]]> philosophy]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .

Is Ours A Herd Morality?

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:01:53 -0400

Do you know the difference between right and wrong? This is the question we ask our teenagers, ad nausea. This is the litmus test for deciding if the criminal is bad or mad. The question itself presupposes that we human beings have an innate sense of right and wrong. It further assumes that what is deemed to be right and wrong is incontrovertible, that they are universal constants which transcend culture and context. Even though the most primitive of tribes, such as aboriginals or criminals, have a rudimentary morality, this only extends to its own members. Those outside the tribe are rarely afforded equal treatment under the code. Even the medieval knights with their strict code of chivalry only reserved this treatment for others from their own caste. These same knights who would not hesitate to sacrifice themselves for the honor of a damsel in distress, thought nothing of butchering the local peasantry. Selective morality is no morality! In this sense all tribe are essentially amoral. Even though we like to think of ourselves as freethinking individuals, the group has a strong influence on the mental frame with which we see the world. **End Summary** Topics: herd mentality]]> morality]]> groupthink]]> free will]]> destiny]]> indiviudality]]> thinking for oneself]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .

Be Careful What You Wish For!

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:47:31 -0400

Is it not wonderful to have all the choices in the world? For many of us this is literally the definition of success, having the ability to choose. We all strive to steer our own boat, be master of our own destiny. But is this really true? Does having unlimited choices actually make anyone happy? Having an infinite array of choices, not knowing which to choose, creates a great deal of pressure. However, the pleasure of having choices is quickly outweighed by the fact that which ever we choose, we are forgoing on so much of what could have been. I think this is why so many people who we would ordinarily think of as being extraordinarily lucky, are quite miserable. An example from my own personal experience, Nadia, the wife of a hedge fund manager, for whom I was commissioned to build a home, illustrates this beautifully. Nadia was obsessed with design of the front door. The main entry, though representing only a fraction of a percent of the total cost of the home, is the focal point of the facade of the house. **End Summary** Topics: choice]]> narcissism]]> the good life]]> humour]]> life styles of the rich and famous]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .

Do Tribes Dominate Our Culture And Rule Our Companies?

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:18:08 -0400

The lone wolf is a myth. No wolf can survive for long in the wild away from its pack. Similarly, the maverick, the solitary hero depicted in the old Marlboro cigarette commercial as the solitary cowboy, out on the range, with nothing but his horse, his gun, and the great blue sky as his companions, is romanticism. In order to achieve anything of enduring value, building a structure, publishing a book, growing a business empire, or raising a child, we need to enlist the active cooperation of others. The only way this can be reliably achieved is by belonging to a tribe. This tribe can be a family, professional organization, religious group or coffeehouse circle. It may involve several tribal affiliations, but it cannot be done alone. This places us, as individuals, in an inherently vulnerable position from the outset. Occasionally, with inordinate effort and great luck, we can achieve a spike of success. However, these victories are usually illusory and short lived, as we ultimately find ourselves pulled down from behind. Since the time of cave dwellers, the tribe has been the basis upon which any social structure is built. **End Summary** Topics: tribes]]> society]]> lone wolf]]> pack mentality]]> individuaulity]]> free will]]> free choice]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .

Are We All Living Inside A Grand Illusion?

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:54:45 -0400

Decades ago, when I was in high school, I remember studying China in geography class. I distinctly recall having the impression of the Chinese living in some kind of Orwellian hell. One image which remained branded into my memory was that of vast roadways filled with throngs of Chinese all riding the same black bicycles. In the capitalist system, the masses are induced to participate in the great game through an elaborate deception. This grand illusion is that we live in a society where all enjoy freedom and abundance. This stratagem is very cleverly concealed, for on an objective, but superficial level, both claims are actually true. We can choose our work place, where we reside, where we choose to travel and what we choose to buy. On the shelves of our stores is an abundance of products to choose from. The trick lies in the fact that the choices are, for the most part, meaningless and the products, essentially redundant. Quantity has been created at the expense of quality. Congestion and pollution have risen to the point that, no matter how wealthy one has become, the environment we live in, is compromised. **End Summary** Topics: illusion of scarcity]]> zero sum game]]> form over substance]]> media]]> health]]> spirituality]]> s]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .

Are We All Being Led Down the Garden Path?

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:25:08 -0400

The faith in the sanctity of the market is the bedrock of the Libertarian creed. It is not so much a philosophy as a religion, only in place of a benevolent God, we have the omniscient market. The market is seen as a perfect, self regulating mechanism. The implication is that, it is far better to let the market take its natural course, than intervene and cause much greater disharmony in the long run. Supporting their hypothesis with innumerable examples of bungled attempts by governments to meddle in the economy, their basic ethos is: the less government the better. This argument is a bit like someone arguing that we should fire the gardener of a beautiful English style garden in which nature appears to be a cacophony, which naturally makes room for all and finds its own harmony. If one were to follow this advice and fire the gardener, for a time there would be very little visible effect. Nature would carry on, the seasons would bring changes, and life would appear to be going on very much as it had been before. **End Summary** Topics: economic crisis. libertarian]]> free market]]> stock markets]]> economic downturn]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .

How To Play The Players

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:24:33 -0400

We all know these people, those slick, smooth manipulators who seem to get away with murder, do as little as humanly possible and end up living a life of ease and comfort. For a number of reasons our society is set up in such a way that it is very difficult for them to lose. It is as if life was a huge game and they were the master players. What is the average person to do when confronted with such practiced charlatans? At first glance, the players seem to have an absolute hold on the game they created. They are the majority; they hold the higher ground and with it a permanent, built in advantage in. What then is the outsider to do against such insuperable odds? We need to find a strategy that allows us to play the game from a weaker position. The strategies that the players employ are all premised upon having the higher ground, having the advantage of leverage. This is at once the strength and weakness of the status quo. On a daily basis it affords them the luxury of being able to win consistently with relatively little risk or effort. **End Summary** Topics: player]]> con man]]> manipulation]]> game]]> hidden game]]> deception]]> misdirection]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .

The Challenge That Groupthink Presents To The Company

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:24:48 -0400

Several years ago, I attended a Tai Chi seminar in Florida, during which we learned a long and complicated series of movements, called a form. We were in a group of about twenty, all of us novices learning the form. The members of the group were all from different parts of the North America. Few of us had met before. Our only connection was a shared interest in Tai Chi. The master would demonstrate the form from an elevated platform, in this case a park bench, and we would attempt to replicate his movements. Periodically the master would ask the group to perform the movements on their own so that he might gauge our progress. The fascinating thing was that when we did the movements without any instructor for us to follow, the entire group would get stuck at the same place. We would then get a prompt from the master, proceed further into the form, and yet again the entire group would come to a dead stop at another point further on in the form. Intuitively, this does not make sense. **End Summary** Topics: trance]]> tribal]]> mind control]]> free will]]> society]]> herd mentality]]> groupthink]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .

Have We Created A New Leviathan For Ourselves?

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:05:08 -0400

The world we find ourselves in today makes no sense. Everything we held in high regard, our profession, the laws, the government, often even those in our own families, has been exposed to be a fraud. We find ourselves in a dog eat dog, catch as catch can world. Ironically this is just the world that the philosopher Thomas Hobbes predicted as a kind of end of days. He referred to it as a leviathan. This new leviathan we find ourselves in is different than the natural state theorized by Hobbes in key respect: instead of being the inevitable outcome of a naturally occurring series of events, it is created by design. It is an ordered matrix of producer and consumer robots isolated from one another, and the environment, by a rigid, narcissistic, linear way of seeing the world. With the dominance of narcissism, instead of being seen as an unfolding of possibilities, life is reduced to zero sum games in which there are only two outcome, winning and losing. The conditions, which sustained the previous order, trust in the communal interest of those around us, no longer holds. **End Summary** Topics: narcissism]]> wall street]]> meltdown]]> hidden game]]> econonmic crisis]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .

The Challenge To the Organization Presented By Impression Management

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:29:11 -0400

The key to success in any game is to be able to influence, or control, events so that they fall in our favor. To this end, the strategic objective of the game is to achieve and maintain leverage over the opponents. Just like holding the higher ground in a battle, leverage helps the player to maintain the upper hand in the relationship. This leverage need not be real; usually it is enough that it is merely perceived. Therefore, bluffing, or impression management, is an integral part of the game. There is an Italian expression: fare una bella figura, which roughly translates to putting on a nice face. This encapsulates this sentiment quite succinctly. Rather then being based upon objective reality, the focus shifts to the appearance of reality. Society rewards the appearance of virtue, rather than virtue itself. The people who appear to be nice, appear to be intelligent, and appear to be competent, are those who thrive in today's society. The surface is what counts. What does not show does not matter! These days most organizations are marketing driven. **End Summary** Topics: impression management]]> perception management]]> player]]> hidden game]]> corporate politics]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .

Nunzio: The Anatomy of the Player

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:52:23 -0400

Nunzio is an electrician, or more precisely, a master electrician, as he will make sure you know. He arrives at the job site in a shiny, late model pick up truck. His truck is white, and always immaculate. When Nunzio arrives on the site, he takes the time to finish his cell phone call, in a leisurely fashion, and then emerges from the truck, in a relaxed leisurely fashion. Nunzio is wearing designer jeans, designer boots, and a fitted sports jacket. From what I have described so far, you might think that Nunzio is an ass. This is, no doubt a fair description of Nunzio, however there is something about Nunzio, which is infectious. One cannot help liking Nunzio. After the sales meeting, during which he stresses personal service to his clients, as his winning formula, you are not likely to hear from him until it is time for a progress payment. Despite being a master-electrician, Nunzio devotes his time to selling and collecting exclusively. I have known Nunzio for several years. One of his favorite lines is: Johnny, I have got your back. **End Summary** Topics: manipulation]]> narcissist]]> narcissism]]> relationship]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .

The Myth of Scarcity

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:42:37 -0400

If you were to, perchance, take a stroll down any corridor of the Corvinus Economics University, during the period just before the fall of Communism, you would likely have encountered the strangest site: a grey haired, be-speckled professor carrying toilet paper. A cursory examination of any of the public bathrooms would have solved the mystery behind this seemingly eccentric behaviour. Later, a professor at the University explained that the reason behind this was that, during the communist era, there were shortages of staples such as toilet paper and if anyone were fortunate enough to happen upon it, they would remove it and keep it for themselves. This behaviour became so ingrained that even when the shortage abated, people would still steal the toilet paper (just in case!). No matter how many times the paper was replaced, within a matter of hours, the dispensers in the stalls would be empty again. The result was that eventually the University stopped replenishing the stalls and everyone had to look to their own resources to accommodate their own needs. Among the myths that form the boundaries of the engineered reality within which we live, one stands out in particular. **End Summary** Topics: illusion of scarcity]]> zero sum game]]> manipulation]]> mind control]]> competition]]> relationship]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .

The Cult of Marketing

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400

What is a cynic? A man who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde If I were to tell you that you are a member of a cult, I bet you would react with shock, anger and possibly rage. If you made that same claim to any fringe group of fanatics, you would get pretty much the same reaction. The main difference between their cult and yours, I would explain, is its size, their cult numbers in the hundreds, maybe even the thousands, while yours numbers in the billions. It is the cult of marketing. Within this cult, the salesperson is the perfect pawn. There is perfect congruence between their motivation and that of their employer. Both are devoted to pushing more product out the door, both put their heart and soul into furthering the interests of the company. Likewise, all of us, in one form or another, must participate in this game. We must view themselves as a product or a brand in order to bring our wares to market. No matter what our particular gift or expertise, we have no choice but to play the marketing game if we are to survive. **End Summary** Topics: Secret]]> marketing]]> selling]]> game]]> player]]> manipulation]]> freedom]]> authentic relationship]]> reclaiming]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .

The Economic Crisis: How We Were Played!

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Thanks to the media, no one is exempt from the dismal news of the economic collapse of Wall Street. All of us have a pretty good idea of the succession of events that got us to this place. But how did it really happen? How could such a thing blindside the best minds of the financial world? And, who is really to blame? Is the very notion of holding anyone accountable outdated? Such are the questions on all our minds today. I believe it was not a freak occurrence; it was not an unforeseeable consequence of a perfect storm of global factors which just happened to converge at one single time. On the contrary, beneath the surface of this crisis lies a set of dynamics concealed from public view that made it not so much happenstance as the inevitable and predictable outcome of a sinister choreography I prefer to call the game. In reality, this game has been around for millennia. It rises and falls with the fluctuations of circumstance. Like the phoenix, out of the ashes of one game comes another, different in form, but remarkably identical in substance. **End Summary** Topics: Secret]]> hidden]]> game]]> player]]> manipulation]]> competitive edge]]> freedom]]> authentic relationship]]> recla]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .

The Road Less Travelled

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400

When I was a child we played a game in the school yard called Marauders. Whoever was it had to touch another kid to make them a marauder. They kept this up until, theoretically, everyone became a marauder. I was lucky and always eluded the marauders, which meant I always won the game. For a time all the kids pursued me in concert, but I always managed to get away. One day they stopped, and though I was the winner, my status had shifted from winner to loser. They were together and I was alone, outside the group. I now had a choice to either join the herd, or live as a hermit. While social necessity impelled me to choose the former, over time my basic nature drove me to the latter. Those whose constitutions cannot accept the straight jacket of the game find themselves as outsiders, helplessly watching the world whirl about them. Outsiders belong to every culture, religion, and social strata. They are the witnesses, cursed with sight in the valley of the blind. As the game is ubiquitous, we are caught in its net whether we like it or not. There is no opting out. **End Summary** Topics: game]]> players]]> third way]]> chart your own course]]> hidden game]]> conspiracy]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .

The Real Secret Revealed

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400

While some people try so hard to get ahead in life, barely keeping their head above water, others have a secret edge, effortlessly getting whatever they want. At best, these winners are mediocre imbeciles, yet they rise to fame and fortune while the virtuous and talented fall by the wayside. Could there be some other force at work here? Could there be a hidden game that circumvents the rules we learned as children? Imagine being in a dark room full of people. With your natural eye you can barely make out their silhouettes, but with night vision goggles, you would have an advantage over the entire crowd. If you are one of those whose head is barely above water, I offer you a pair of social-vision goggles, so to speak, a peek at the real secret. You see, there is a game being played right before our very eyes, a game most of us will never see. We find it around the water cooler at work. We find it with the regulars down at the local bar. We even find it in our own homes around the dinner table at holiday dinners. **End Summary** Topics: Secret]]> hidden]]> game]]> player]]> manipulation]]> competitive edge]]> freedom]]> authentic relationship]]> recla]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book '"Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed."' The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com .