How People Buy Into Their Own Games
Alan Watts often explored how people become trapped in the games they create for themselves. Whether it’s an ideology, a belief system, or a personal narrative, people get so wrapped up in their own constructed realities that they seem incomprehensible to outsiders. The deeper they go, the more they appear lost—or, in some cases, enlightened—depending on who’s looking.
This isn’t just an individual phenomenon; it happens on a societal scale. When people are placed into structured environments where authority is absolute, they become increasingly susceptible to extreme behaviors. They don’t necessarily start as radicals, but over time, they buy into the system so fully that it becomes impossible to see beyond it.
To hear Watts break down this idea, click here and skip to 3:00, where he explains how people become “lost” in their own game.
Milgram’s Experiment: Obedience to Authority Is Contextual
The infamous Milgram experiment demonstrated that in an academic setting, 65% of people were willing to administer what they believed were lethal electric shocks to another person, simply because an authority figure told them to. It was a chilling demonstration of blind obedience.
However, when the experiment was conducted outside an academic setting, compliance dropped significantly. In environments where authority wasn’t institutionally legitimized, people were far less willing to override their personal morals.
The key takeaway? Obedience isn’t innate—it’s shaped by context. People comply not because they’re inherently cruel but because the system around them makes it feel normal. Read more about this here, where you can see how compliance changed in non-academic settings.
Chairman Mao’s Playbook: The Weaponization of the Disempowered
If you want to see this on a massive scale, look no further than Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution. Mao understood that if you want to enforce radical ideas, young academic women—who often feel disempowered within the system—are the ideal recruits.
Why? Because the moment you give them a moral cause and power, they become the most fervent enforcers of ideology. This is why the Red Guards—composed mostly of students—became the foot soldiers of Mao’s movement, attacking intellectuals, dismantling traditions, and enforcing ideological purity. They weren’t just given a cause; they were given moral license to act without question.
This pattern is timeless. If you can convince someone they are oppressed and then grant them authority, they will often wield it with even more zeal than those who originally held power.
The Pattern: Obedience, Power, and the Right Narrative
Across these examples, we see a common pattern:
1. People who are lost in their own narrative become unpredictable and difficult to communicate with. (Watts)
2. Institutional settings create obedience, making people far more likely to follow extreme orders. (Milgram)
3. Young, disempowered groups given moral authority become the most fervent enforcers of radical change. (Mao)
Put these together, and you have a powerful formula for shaping behavior, compliance, and control. But the key question is: How do you escape the game?
The Only Way Out: Willy Wonka and the Manifestation of a New Reality
Alan Watts hinted at the escape route: the difference between a square and a Willy Wonka isn’t much at all—both are deeply invested in their own game. The real trick isn’t necessarily to escape the game but to see the game from a different vantage point.
A square is someone rigidly following societal norms, thinking they are playing the “right” game. A Willy Wonka, on the other hand, is someone who takes the game to its logical extreme until it becomes something else entirely.
This is where the analogy of falling into a black hole comes in. If you try to resist the gravitational pull of the system you’re in, you’ll only struggle against inevitability. But if you embrace the collapse, ride the momentum, and “manifest a door,” you might just step into another reality entirely.
Watts often spoke of seeing life from the axle of the wheel rather than being spun around on the rim. The axle is the still point, the perspective that allows you to observe rather than be thrown around by external forces. It’s the Middle Path, the way to move forward without getting lost in the extremes.
Final Thought: Seeing the System for What It Is
The systems we live in—whether academic, ideological, or political—are only as powerful as our willingness to take them seriously. Some people become squares, buying into the rules completely. Others become radicals, trying to break the rules but still trapped in the game. And then there are the Willy Wonkas—the ones who play with the system so creatively that they render its rules irrelevant.
So the question is: Are you on the rim of the wheel, spun around by forces beyond your control? Or are you sitting at the axle, watching the whole thing spin?
