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The Survival Game:
Who Wins?

Mankind’s fundamental philosophy toward survival is driving the world toward disaster.
Why do so many follow a way that is so destructive? What can—and should—you do to survive?

by Bill Bradford

Imagine yourself marooned on an island in the South Pacific or struggling to survive on meager provisions in the Australian outback. You find yourself with a few competing colleagues, and all of you must exercise every ounce of ingenuity and resourcefulness just to survive the harshness of the environment.

Not only do you have to deal with lack of food and shelter for more than six weeks, but you must survive each other. The rules to which everyone has agreed stipulate that every few days you will vote someone out of the group. This ousting continues relentlessly until only one is left. The last one remaining gets the grand prize of $1 million.

By now you have probably recognized the story line of Survivor, this season's highest-rated American television show. Millions watch the program every week to see who will be voted out of the group and who will "survive."

The producers of Survivor have captured the essence of the struggle for survival from mankind's very beginnings. The show is a remarkable microcosm of human civilization in which the viewer can watch raw human nature at work to make sure No. 1 comes out on top.

Initially, and superficially, everyone in the group must cooperate. The participants work together for the good of the whole group to supply food, erect shelters and come out on top in competitions. But beyond that they fiercely compete with each other.

It is no great surprise that the contestants quickly form alliances. They conspire to vote out of the group whoever they consider to be the weakest link, or the person who contributes least to the good of the group, or the individual who simply doesn't fit in.

Later the organizers of the alliances find others turning on them, and they find themselves voted out. The contestants manipulate, lie and betray in a surreal cutthroat process of eliminating imagined friend and foe. As the ordeal wears on, it's every man for himself.

Read the full article at www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn34/survivalgame.htm