Over the last few years I’ve noticed a weird mode of thinking taking root. Put simply, people approach a situation, come up with a short-term solution but then act as though the problem is permanently solved. Whatever move they make is to be treated as the last turn of the game.
I first encountered this in gaming, and of course on the last turn all sorts of odd things can happen in a desperate effort to win. In many strategy games, a player will go all out and completely overextend himself just to take the objective. Had the game continued, defeat was a certainty, but since it’s the last turn, that doesn’t matter.
The weird thing is that I started to see this in games without sudden death victory conditions (as opposed to checkmate in chess or hitting the points goal in a card game). People will pull off a stunt, do really well, but then want to stop playing because they won. Their power move was so perfect, so well done, that it should cause everyone else to quit in despair. More often than not, they get trounced, particularly in multi-player games where everyone can gang pile them.
This mentality has now bled out into the real world, particularly politics, where a momentary victory supposedly “decides” an issue, which must never be brought up again. Yet all victories are essentially temporary. The decisive Allied victory in World War II had something of an afterglow, but is largely irrelevant in light of shifts in power, population and the world in general.
For example, the Royal Navy can take as much pride as it wants in its many victories, but it is today a shadow of its former strength. Similarly, the prestige of many formerly dominant militaries like Germany and Russia has been greatly dimmed.
This mentality often exists on a personal level, where a “friend” takes advantage in some way and is then shocked that the relationship suffers long-term damage. “Why can’t you just get over that?” is not the same as an apology, nor can someone trust an apology that follows a deliberate act.
To give a specific example, consider the cheating undertaken by the University of Michigan’s football staff from 2021 through 2023. The NCAA investigation concluded that it was against the rules and provided a competitive advantage, and staff involved in the scheme were sanctioned heavily, with the then-head coach Jim Harbaugh effectively banned from college football for life. The NCAA did not vacate the victories however, and the university still claims the title, as do its fans.
However, the fact of the cheating remains, and with the passage of time, it has no been forgotten. Instead, it has festered, tainting the whole program, which is mired in sanctions and lawsuits.
Harbaugh’s belief was that after he got the title (and a job in the NFL), the circumstances would be forgotten, but the exact opposite has happened, and the subsequent decline of the program (and many of the players and staff failing to flourish elsewhere) further taint the accomplishment. Harbaugh thought he was taking the last turn of the game, and in a way he was. His college coaching days are over.
But life goes on, and every time he speaks about values or integrity, people laugh. The University of Michigan is now the butt of jokes because while its leadership clearly had no idea what was going on, it should have taken firm and immediate action once the scope of the problem became clear. Instead, it clutches to a tainted trophy and the athletic director who oversaw the whole sordid affair – and did nothing – is still working there.
The game isn’t over.
Chateau Lloyd 
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