"4-Dimensional Chess" in politics is a variant of The Boromir Strategy (hence always evil)

Even Spock was limited to Tri-Dimensional Chess...

Recent and forthcoming events in relation to the US "President" elections, have once again filled the mass media and blogosphere with complex, labile, incoherent "4-Dimensional Chess" explanations of what is really going-on...

We know that the official story is never true; nonetheless it's a snare to get drawn into these attempts to discover the real truth. 

Not only because they are necessarily false explanations (although the truth is that we cannot ever know, because some key relevant information is unavailable to outsiders, and the insiders are all evil liars). And not only because even-if the truth was discovered, and the villains and their villainy identified, justice would not be done.   

I fully accept that there are indeed many people playing 4D chess in politics; that is, adopting multi-layered strategies whereby the meaning of a "move" on one level may (or may not) mean the opposite, on another level; and where the overall strategy is only apparent by a multi-level and dynamic awareness.

And, of course, other people (and probably most of them) are merely using 4D chess explanations to cover-up incompetence, ignorance and insanity. 

But complex and long-term 4-Dimensional Chess strategizing is how many of the leadership class operate; as I know from my own experiences working inside large bureaucracies such as the National Health Service, Universities Think Tanks and the like. They discuss and make such plans, and they try to accomplish them.

(The 4D strategies are always derailed by endemic dishonesty, incompetence, and corruption. They invariably end by having different outcomes from intended, and by destroying capability and efficiency. Nonetheless, there are many such plans in the pipeline and operative.)

 

What I am saying is that reasoning about politics on the lines of 4D chess, demonstrates that participants in this kind of strategy and analysis are on the side of evil. 

In other words: regarding politics as any kind of four-dimensional chess problem, is an evil-stance on human society; because it derives from a perspective on other people that is deceptive and manipulative. 

Typically, complex schemes of deception and manipulation are presented as being "in a good cause" - e.g. to defeat some evil, or in order that "we" (the supposedly good side) can win, and then do good things...

 

In short, 4-Dimensional Chess is a version of our old friend The Boromir Strategy - which is an ancient demonic temptation to encourage a moral separation between ends and means; to encourage the delusion that we can pursue good ends by evil means. 

By contrast; when good is genuinely being pursued in politics (a rare situation, and currently absent) then means and ends are in obvious, up-front harmony; because both are clear and simple, and fit-together. 

That's the only way that good is ever achieved in a top-down fashion.

I, Claudius/ the God and 4-Dimensional Chess in politics

I wonder if it was Robert Graves's massively-influential two-part pseudo-autobiographical novel I, Claudius (or "Clavdivs" as it was written on the cover of the version I read - and which my Granny noticed and read-out phonetically, leading to a continuing family pronunciation-trope) and Claudius the God; that popularized the 4-Dimensional Chess understanding of political leaders - so evident among the self-styled "Right" in the US today. 

Before Graves's books, it seems that Claudius was regarded as a mediocre and weak Emperor, who came in-between the two ultra-evil (hence much more interesting) Emperors: Caligula and Nero. 

Of course, Claudius Caesar was also the Emperor who successfully conquered England - so for us there is an inclination to assume that there "must have" been something more positive to him; since he succeeded in beating "us" where the great Julius had failed (twice). 

At any rate; Graves decided to depict Claudius as a good, clever, and sympathetic man; whose underlying desire and purpose - unspoken, kept in his secret heart - was to abolish the position of Emperor and restore the Roman Republic...

Who nonetheless, by a series of accidents, ended-up becoming the Emperor instead!

This assumption I found convincing in I, Claudius, which covers the time before he became Emperor; but becomes increasingly untenable as we progress through all the corruptions and evils of Claudius's actual reign, and his final decision to allow himself to be poisoned, and Nero to become his successor. 

Yet Graves sticks with the idea that Claudius always aimed at good; and manages this by attributing all sorts of 4-D chess attributes. Including the final desperate master-stroke of ensuring that Claudius himself would be followed by the worst possible successor - in the (as it turned-out, mistaken) belief that after Nero, the situation of Rome would become so very-bad that (surely?) the Republic would be restored.  

This did not convince me at the time I first read C the G (aged 14) - and it does not convince me now. 

Nor am I convinced by attempts to depict current (or recent) mainstream political figures - who advocate-promote-and-do, many or most of the usual mainstream-evil things; to depict such characters  as being - in their secret hearts - agents for good... 

Biding their time, taking the long view; (like Saruman) regretting that the ultimate end unfortunately entails implementing malignant means, here-and-now... 

But with a Master Plan to ensure the restoration of common sense and decency in public life; by means of a covert strategy far beyond the comprehension of us ordinary mortals - yet working behind-the-scenes, always and tirelessly, for our betterment. 

Paging Boromir! Anyone who approves of (real or imagined) "4-dimensional chess" strategies in politics is on the side of evil

Let me explain what's really going-on...

There has been, I notice, another and severe outbreak of 4-dimensional chess attribution among political commentary in relation to the current US President's foreign policy. 

I would suggest that politics when it is Good is actually very simple.

Whenever politics actually is, or aspires to be, complex, nuanced, multi-faceted - then we should know that we are confronted with our old friend the Boromir Strategy. 

Under all the rationalizations it's just another case of: Hey lads, let's use the One Ring to fight Sauron! 

It's not that the US President and his gang couldn't or wouldn't play some kind of 4-D chess game; but that insofar as they do operate thus - then they objectively are on the side of evil. 

And those political commentators and analysts who approve such modes of operation are part of the pseudo-alternative, but in fact totalitarian Establishment-allied, "Boromirosphere"...

They are doing the work of Satan; however they may self-identify or self-present as one of the Good Guys.