It Never Ends
The most unrealistic thing about Microscope is that the history has an end. There’s a starting bookend and an ending bookend.
Real history never ends. It just keeps going and going. Every victory sets the stage for the next battle, but so does every defeat. The next election will fix things! Or destroy things! Yes, an election will make a difference, but there will be another election after that. And another, and another, and another.
Things just keep happening. It’s never over.
When I talk to friends and family about the simmering hellscape that is current events, this is the thing I keep coming back to. We discuss the importance of the next election or how someone should face punishment for their crimes or what should be done about today’s tragedy. But I remind them (and myself) that the truth is it will never stop. It’s never over. When this thing is done, there will be something else.
If we don’t accept and embrace that this is how the world works we risk exhaustion and perpetual disappointment. We risk giving up on fixing things because it never feels like anything is *settled*.
Because, honestly, nothing ever is. It never ends.
Leave a reply
I would like to say that the idea the previous person posted for a microscope modification sounds fun and pretty easy to test. To test it you would just play microscope but then let everyone know that they could make periods before and after the start and end ones
Very important truth that we would all do well to remember. It reminds me of why the ends can’t justify the means: because we have no ends; all we have are means.
Back to a gaming perspective though, has anyone written about playing Microscope or one of its relatives where the bookends are not immutable? For example, returning to a previous game of Microscope except the bookends have been expanded outward, so earlier or later periods can be explored. Or during a game, a player can propose that a bookend be “opened” for modification.