cardboard adolescent

"The rules of the finite game may not change; the rules of an infinite game must change.
Finite players play within boundaries; infinite players play with boundaries.
Finite players are serious; infinite games are playful.
A finite player plays to be powerful; an infinite player plays with strength.
A finite player consumes time; an infinite player generates time.
The finite player aims for eternal life; the infinite player aims for eternal birth.
The choice is yours."

In Finite and Infinite Games, James P. Carse essentially analyzes all human activity in terms of finite and infinite games; finite games, such as tennis, politics or working for a large company, are defined by a beginning and end, a winner and loser. We play them to gain power, titles, to gain a role in society which others cannot question or reject. We play them to end them. Infinite games, on the other hand, are played for the purpose of play, they have no 'end' but the desire to keep other players in the game, to prolong the play. Rather than operating within boundaries which give their players identities, they play with boundaries, they play with the rules themselves. Examples here include art and philosophy, and possibly sexuality, though sexuality has a finite and infinite version. Sexuality as a finite game means 'winning' your sexual partner, owning them and being able to parade them around as a status symbol. Infinite sexuality is something much deeper, which allows people to find, explore and transform themselves and others. The way in which he develops these themes is really brilliant and hard to capture in a short synopsis, but I basically think this book should be required reading for everyone. It's very insightful and profound and incredibly readable and easy to understand, even when he quotes Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud, Jesus, Rousseau, etc...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite_and_infinite_games