From my perspective, I have spent my life playing Chess on a Snakes and Ladders game board; chasing a near-impossible dream instead of calculating good-enough. From a Western Capitalist perspective, I have spent my life playing Snakes and Ladders on a Chess board; missing opportunities to settle in my place by reaching for a rung above my station. Regardless of perspective, I am either playing the wrong game, or playing on the wrong board. On many different levels.

From the perspective of a single lifetime, consensus is that I should pretend to be playing Chess on a Chess board. From the perspective of the past, present and future of a single species, reality is that I am playing a theoretically endless game of Snakes and Ladders on a theoretically endless Snakes and Ladders game board. It is our gameboard; so (from the past-present-future-species perspective) why would we not want to build more ladders? And kill off a few snakes? And expand upward into the future? Why do we insist upon strategizing random dumb luck? And leaving most of the game board in such disrepair? It is only from the perspective of a single lifetime that those at the top of the board would want to maintain status quo by pretending to play Chess.

If Charles Darwin is correct that “Intelligence is based on how efficient a species becomes at doing the things they need to survive” how will we be judged? As a species we have seen 200,000 years. Our civilization (marked by the advent of agriculture) has seen 10,000 years. From fossil records we know that a typical mammalian species can expect to survive about 1,000,000 years, and across all species average survival ranges between 1,000,000 and 10,000,000 years. So to be of even average intelligence, we need to change our trajectory. There are slime molds smarter than we are; and not just because they have hundreds of millions of years on us, but also because they can more efficiently find their way out of an IKEA store; (look it up). They have certainly managed to not only find their way but also to expand their own Snakes and Ladders game board.

Because of the predominance of capitalist thought, as an individual I am busy. Pitfalls and opportunities. A surplus and a misguided urgency. A dearth and an oppressed quiescence. Random, unexpected, unplanned for. Secret doorways, stairways and passages. Broken ladders, duplicitous detours and treacherous obstacles. Invisible demons, poisonous stings and painful bites.

Because of the predominance of capitalist thought, as a species we are stuck. No progress, no growth, no expansion, no potential, and (in this moment) not a lot of hope.

From the past-present-future-species perspective, our individual-lifetime perspective would be laughable if it were not so consequentially insignificant. Consequentially insignificant because our species (on our current trajectory) will be judged insignificant in its inefficiencies and in its lack of intelligence, yet our actions, our games and our game boards are creating consequences that will continue to impact beyond our insignificant span. Yes, I believe our trajectory could change. I am actively hopeful and I maintain faith.

I spent much of my life chasing (my interpretation of) the American Dream. I spent much of my life (repeatedly) running smack into the American Way. My interpretation has evolved, from the American Dream of personal success to a Humanitarian Dream of flourishing survival, and an ultimate past-present-future-species judgement of efficient intelligence. We must change our trajectory.