Yesterday, the line-up of the players for the Game was finally determined. It was determined in the sense that, at the last moment, three more men declined to take part. By then it was too late to find substitutes and none of three was replaceable anyway. The fact is that, although in matters of work, no-one is irreplaceable, it’s quite the opposite with thinking, where everyone is irreplaceable. And some are more irreplaceable than others.

On the whole, thinking is difficult - always and everywhere. It is difficult because it’s hard work, needing high levels of self-control, discipline and introspection. How much easier it is to get to grips with, or rework some old theory, to be guided by the authorities, to add and multiply columns of numbers, to write articles on some set theme in the same old hackneyed phrases, to conjure up some spiel on the upshot of an unsuccessful electoral campaign – in other words, to busy oneself with all those things that are proudly yet mindlessly labelled as intellectual endeavour.

But in our situation, thinking takes civil courage. The courage to look the truth in the eye. The courage to rise above the stifling mindlessness of everyday life. The courage to break out of the circle of the usual ideas. The courage to act counter to the prejudices of a philistine environment. To risk losing your job, and the goodwill not only of the authorities but of your friends.

Thinking is hindered by fear. Fear of the regime and repression – that’s nothing much. But fear of disillusionment. Fear of losing your mental well-being and cosy self-esteem. Fear of venturing into the unknown. Fear of becoming bankrupt. Fear of comparison with others.

Thinking is hindered by laziness. Being too lazy to exert yourself. Too lazy to scrape away those layers of useless knowledge that have built up over the years. Too lazy to analyze your words, behaviour and actions.

Thinking is hindered by being busy. Busy with everyday concerns. Busy with pointless activity. Busy with the daily round of contacts and relationships. Busy with unfulfilled and unfulfillable responsibilities.

During this year of intensive meetings and organisational work, I have collected a vast array of refusals to my propositions, invitations and theses on the subject of thinking. In refusing to think, no mention is made of fear, laziness or being too busy. Typical reasons given are the lack of time, disapproval by the authorities, and unexpected circumstances ranging from court cases and arrests to illness and natural disasters. I understand: people do fall ill, the regime is brutish, business is stagnating, cars break down, the authorities are offensive. But – I don’t believe all this.

However, my business is to make suggestions.

People don’t actually want to think, in totalitarian societies or in democratic ones. But different societies and milieus throw up different reasons for this. In totalitarian societies the main reasons are fear, uncertainty, dependence and submissiveness; in democratic societies it is most often about being too busy, and the unending stream of tasks and obligations. The reason that people living under the yoke of a totalitarian dictatorship don’t think is because they are oppressed and frightened. People in a free, market-based society don’t think because they are unable to free themselves from the daily grind.

Yet if they don’t think, societies decline and perish, whether they are totalitarian or democratic. Totalitarian societies die for ever, while democratic ones lose their freedom only for a period of time.

In an effort to survive, both totalitarian and democratic societies delegate their thinking to professionals. In totalitarian societies, thinkers are appointed, whereas democratic and market-based societies pay for their thinking. This is not the only difference. In a totalitarian society, the appointed thinkers are forced to think identically and any divergent thinking is prosecuted and punished. Therefore, even academics in totalitarian societies prefer not to think, and merely repackage in ‘intellectual’ language the pompous trivialities uttered by the authorities. Managers in totalitarian societies don’t think either – at least, not about work. Thinking about work is something you can do fine without, and not just work, but also health, life and freedom (though what is freedom in a totalitarian society anyway?)

In a democratic market-based society, people don’t think because they are not paid to. They pay for someone else to do it. People learn only those things that they need to earn a living, and there are some who do make thinking their profession and a means of earning a living.

Because of the position that thinking occupies in each type of society, thinking is in short supply, dependent on, and conditioned by, a whole range of factors.

So let’s play the Game. The Game, and that unique arena of life and work created in it, is a place for genuinely free thinking, emancipated and unconstrained by the limiting circumstances of daily life and professional responsibilities.

In the Game, we think. And our thinking in the Game is constrained by nothing other than thinking itself. And when we leave the Game and return to our lives and work, we cannot go on living and acting unthinkingly. We return as thinkers. Thinking freely.

To all who have refused to play – you have my sincerest sympathy.

V. Matskevich

25.02.2006

Translated by Chris Ayton (Scotland)