The Most Foul Game
The Most Foul Game
By Bud Hancock
Americans love games, whether video games, card games, board games or athletic games. The playing of games seems to be a way of maintaining the sense of youthfulness, long after one’s natural youth has departed and has been replaced with, um, maturity? When the subject of games is raised, most normal Americans will quickly think of either baseball, which for years was known as America’s pastime, or in today’s world, football will be the first game mentioned. But, politics has also long been referred to as a ‘game’, one considered by many to be the ‘ultimate game’ that can be played. While the outcomes of sports games may last in the memory of the fans for a short while, the outcomes of many historical ‘political games’ have changed nations and continents, sometimes for years and even centuries. While many consider it the ‘ultimate game’, it is also the dirtiest, foulest, most corrupt game on earth, the worst ever in the history of mankind.
Being a true American boy, I was a baseball enthusiast when growing up. I would rather have played baseball than eat when I was hungry. But, alas, one can only play a child’s game for so long, unless you are extremely athletically gifted and are being paid millions of dollars to do so in order to bring entertainment to the fans of the game.
Like most athletes born with the muscular structure, the perfectly balanced metabolic/hormonal processes needed to excel in physical games that have little value other than for entertainment, most continue playing the kids games for one of several reasons: 1) their own burning desire to push themselves to, and beyond, the normal limits of human activity, or 2) they become so well-compensated for their athletic abilities that the compensation far exceeds the physical pain caused by a lack of the continued robustness needed to prove themselves better than other gifted athletes at what they all do: playing a game, or 3) the truly dedicated athlete has a desire to carry with him, and possibly add to, the trophies that his athleticism has provided, e.g. in the case of baseball, the MVP award, possibly the HR record, or number of lifetime wins for a pitcher; the ultimate is the league championship or even better, the World Series Championship. These are some of the ‘trophies’ that are so desired for the professional athlete to possess
However, were it not for the fact that professional athletes are being paid enormous salaries, the desire to continue playing would eventually die. It becomes ‘all about the money’, the enormous compensation. It becomes about the almighty ‘net worth’. It eventually becomes about the bragging rights they feel they have earned, the rights to gloat about the records they have set, the endurance they displayed through many years of repeated athletic activity, in the acquisition of fame, and the army of ‘adoring fans’, fans who worship them like little gods. As a kid who loved one of the kids games, I can somewhat understand that desire to ‘never give it up’, especially if there are millions of people willing to plunk down large amounts of money to watch their sports heroes play.
But, while contemplating politics and politicians, I questioned why, with all its foulness, all the corruption it involves, not only in its basic ‘rules of playing the game’, but also the rot it causes in our national discourse, why do politicians all seem to love the game so much? What is it about the game that will eventually cause them all to change their ‘pre-politics nature’, from that of ‘do-good crusader’ into that of a swamp-dwelling, swamp-loving, bloodthirsty reptile?
For the seasoned politician, it usually becomes an exercise in the exultation of an almost unlimited power they have gotten as a result of ‘playing the game’. While not all professional athletes brag about the huge monetary compensation they have received for their participation, at least not where the ‘adoring fans’ can hear it, the politician seldom emphasizes the power element and the desire for more, usually gained by ‘playing the game’, at least not where their constituents can hear it. For both groups, the athletes, and the politicians, while it may never be spoken of in front of their adoring ‘fans/constituents’, they nevertheless exult in the fame, money and influence/power they have gotten because of the games into which they were recruited.
Recruited? Wait, you mean the athlete, right?
Yes, the athlete is recruited, because of the obvious natural (sometimes drug-enhanced) physical ability he or she possesses that allows for a display of excellence on a specific field of endeavor, recruited by a representative of the owner of a professional team on which the recruiter hopes the athlete will display that physical prowess. All professional athletic sports teams are owned by either a single person, or a conglomerate of persons who hope to gain wealth by providing ‘entertainment’ (and yes, that’s all professional sports games are) at a cost to the viewers of said entertainment.
But the politician is recruited for a very different reason, and by a very different recruiter. All politicians who either win elections, or are appointed to positions by other politicians, are either a part of a government, or a group of wealthy people who also hope to gain much from the ones recruited.
The question then becomes, “Who owns the team on which a politicians eventually play”? “Wait”, you might say, “governments are owned by the citizens of the countries, right?” I contend that most, if not all, governments are owned by both a ‘single entity’ as well as a group of conglomerates. In fact, they are ALL owned by the same entity, with the ‘conglomerates’ being controlled by him, and this has been the case for nearly six thousand years. While all the owners of professional sports teams love the limelight, and their names are well-known, the owner of governments is a much less well-known entity, at least as his ownership of governments in concerned.
But, again you might say: “Wait a minute, the people living in the various nations, at least the Democratic ones, own their governments, and they ‘recruit their politicians from within the ranks, right”? Once again, wrong. Take the example of the POTUS elections here in the United States. Our political system is made up of basically two political parties, the Republicans, and the Democrats, though there have been other parties in the past that have since disappeared.
Each party has what is called a ‘platform’, or the ‘agenda’ on which they make their particular policy stands. The platform has individual ‘planks’, each of which represents the individual agenda items that the parties consider important to them. When party primary elections are held, those whose names are placed on the primary ballots have already been carefully and thoroughly vetted to make sure they will adhere to the party’s platform and planks. All candidates who agree to that demand are allowed to run for seats in government, and those will not do so, will not gain any party support, either moral or monetary. And trust me, without the money needed to finance a campaign, no candidate wins election. The connection between money and politics has been a well-known fact since American politics began.
Mark Hanna, William McKinley’s 1896 presidential campaign manager and later senator from Ohio, famously said, “There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money and I can’t remember what the second one is.”
To that extent, all candidates are ‘recruited’ through the ‘party vetting processes’. Also to that extent, the parties, rather the big money powers that finance the party’s actions and campaigns, become the ‘owners’ of said candidates. I don’t mean ‘owners’ like slaves from the past because the money powers make sure that the candidates who win elections are very well-compensated, hence the self-propagating desire to win, and remain in, the seat of power and influence. Just as the physical athlete covets the trophies he or she amasses during their playing careers, politicians also have their favorite trophies. While it is true that most politicians are as well-compensated as their athlete counterparts, for the pols it becomes more about how much power can be gotten through the playing of the game. The very character of the political game seems to instill in the players a desire to be able to control, not only their own lives, but the lives of the people they are supposed to be representing.
And that leads to the name of the owner of the governments who recruits the players in the foul game of politics. His name is Satan and he has become a master of the game that he invented all those generations and thousands of years ago. Satan, also known as Lucifer, the highest in the archangel order is one slick operator, much as the professional team owners and the vast number of politicians on this planet. As ‘team owner’, he is the one behind all the recruiting and placement of politicians in every government. His plan, a plan for complete and absolute domination of the earth’s population, has been in effect for thousands of years, and quite honestly, there have been times in the history of mankind where it seemed he was about to get his plan completed. But, as slick as he is, he never has been, is not now, nor will he ever be able to match wits with Almighty God. No matter how close he may seem to get, no matter how many evil, greedy, power-hungry politicians he recruits, there is no way he will get the control and domination he so badly wants.
As nasty and foul as politics is, there is usually a ‘remnant’ who absolutely refuse to bow to the god of mammon and allow him the control he seeks. In most cases, those who refuse to bow have very short political careers, and in some cases, shortened lives.
There is one major difference between the players in pro sports games and those who play the foul nasty political game. Players in pro sports sign contracts with the team owners with the assistance of a personal agent. The agent is well-paid by the player in order to get the best contract possible. These contract usually allow for one or more means of ‘escaping’ from them, and many players exercise these escape means quite often, moving to other teams for various reasons. However, in the dirty political game, there is only ‘one team’, with ‘one owner’ and based on the compensation, whether money, power, fame or other, escaping from a team whose owner has purchased the soul and conscience of the ‘player’, may be impossible.
Satan always has been a sore loser and once he has paid for a player, he does not like to see that person leave his camp. My personal opinion on why so many people stay in his camp, especially those who were at one point, believers in God and Jesus Christ, and who entered the game with a sincere desire to “make things better’, is that as they experience more and more of the evil rewards that every player is offered, they accept the rewards and become so jaded in their ideology, or their original ‘good intentions’ for helping others is turned into a serious lust for more and more of the evil rewards, and at that point they cannot turn away. They have become like the persons Paul mentions in his first letter to Timothy: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;” (I Timothy 4:1-2 KJV). On reaching this point, they have succumbed to Satan’s trap and may be hopelessly lost; only God knows.
I know that we, as true believers, are supposed to take an active interest in our government, at least to the extent that we carefully research and vet those who desire to become representatives on their fellow citizens. However, we are also reminded that, just as all those mentioned in the Book of Hebrews, as heroes of faith, we are only ‘strangers and pilgrims’ on the earth.
It is not difficult to see that most, if not all, governments, are evil in their very makeup and as such, can be a serious trap for believers. The Apostle Paul spoke about this in his first letter to the Church at Thessalonica: “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Thessalonians 5:21-23 KJV).
In conclusion, I would caution anyone who is considering becoming involved in government as a candidate for public office: Politics is not only the most nasty, foul and corrupt game, it is a dangerous game, and one that can cost not only your life, but your eternal soul. If you truly want to get involved, make sure you have prayed and received God’s direction and blessing. But be prepared for the onslaught of evil offerings that will surely come your way. The easiest way to fall into a trap set by Satan is to think you can just take a few of the ‘rewards’ and then retreat back to the safety of a close relationship with God. Jesus spoke of this issue when He told His disciples: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24 KJV)
If you can find a way to become politically involved and still avoid the ‘appearance of evil’, then have at it. But, remember, Satan is a tough taskmaster who demands everything from those who yield to his temptations, and greed is one of the tools he uses to set his trap; It has been said by Janwillem van de Wetering : “Greed is a fat demon with a small mouth and whatever you feed it is never enough.”
BEWARE!
Blessings!