Polytopia and Life Lessons for Race

By W. F. Twyman, Jr.

If you were to ask me what is my better philosophy of racial life, I would reply that everyone should value (1) human dignity, (2) creative expression, and (3) the individual. Living through over eight hundred essays since March 23, 2023 leads me in this direction. Take human dignity. Every time we view life through groups, every time we dehumanize individuals with words like “poor white trash mentality,” we as writers are sullying human dignity. Humans at base reality are individuals, not avatars for a racial group. Framing life as group analysis is off-putting.

Having finished the 981-page novel Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace two days ago, I was happy to move on to the next book I received for Christmas, Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson. And what a quantum leap in my reading experience! I began reading Infinite Jest during the twelve days of Christmas. It was a long slog with 388 footnotes. I did not read the footnotes. I am already up to page 450 in Elon Musk which I appreciate as a reader.

As I read, I am always open to better understanding the human condition. Race, Blackness, is just a subset of the human condition. We verge off track when we conceive of something magical about blackness in America. Maybe, there was something magical during the days of Howard University under the inspired leadership of President Mordecai W. Johnson or the intense stewardship of Dean Charles H. Houston at the Howard Law School. Those days are lone gone. In reality today, people are just living their lives, some lost in activism and others lost in self-realization.

I, for one, like to question dogma and slogan words. Why do you say Blackness is Oppression? Nothing else matters? Why do you revere the kente cloth of the Ashanti slave trader? Why do you swim in waters of pessimism? Why the inability to live in the year 2025 as opposed to the year 1903? See The Souls of Black Folk

As I read Elon Musk, it occurred to me that there are ideas from the life of this American native to South Africa that might enrich the public discourse on race and blackness. I could be wrong. I could be right. I could be wrong and right with my creative associations but why not? Golly darn, why not look outside dogma and slogan words for more inventive ways of understanding Blackness? Here is my idea.

There is a computer game called Polytopia. As best I can tell, the game is a simulation strategy game. “Players take control of a tribe as they build an empire and attempt to defeat the other tribes across a procedurally generated world. Each tribe starts the game with a unique ability, though all have access to the same technology tree. As players explore the world map, they construct and upgrade cities, research new technologies, and produce units used to battle the other tribes.”

What I caught as I read about this game was how it was a high-level strategy game. One competes against other tribes for dominance. The point is to grow your nation through various strategic choices. Each tribe has a distinct history and culture. Every tribe has access to the same technology tree but there are real-life variants. One tribe based on physical location might be able to climb mountains better than other tribes. Another tribe might be better at hunting animals. The point is to make calculated decisions about self-improvement, sending out scouting teams and the best strategic time to conquer a village. One can choose to care about "future Homer” or not. Every tribe has the same arsenal of strategic calls.

“Each player begins with a small settlement and a unit that they can use to explore the world map. On their turn, players can move all of their units and spend a resource called stars. Cities generate stars, which can be spent to unlock new abilities on the technology tree, create more units to wage war, or collect materials to upgrade cities and allow them to support more soldiers. Upgrading cities allows the player to choose between one of two benefits, such as allowing the settlement to generate extra stars every turn, or send out a messenger that explores the map. Players gain new cities by conquering villages at set points around the world.^”

Elon Musk loves this game of strategic calculation and empire building. Indeed, “in 2021, he became obsessed with a new multiplayer strategy on his iPhone, Polytopia.” Elon Musk, pgs. 426-427 On vacation, Musk “spent hours by himself in his room or in the corner playing the game.” Id. at p. 426. Could it be that a drive to play games of strategy propelled Musk to the top of the economic heap? Might there be life lessons imprinted on his neural pathways every time Musk plays this game? And, if so, can these life lessons be adopted by black Americans writ large? Might beat Blackness is Oppression, Nothing Else Matters as a strategy for living life.

I suspect so. Here are eight life lessons from Polytopia that might generate more success stories of enterprise for Black Americans:

1. Empathy is not an asset. My Grandma was a nice person. My Dad is a nice man. I am a nice person. But being nice will not lift one up into the highest ranks of business enterprise. Empathy will hurt one in business. I am reminded of Reginald Lewis who did not bring empathy to the game of buying companies. He was a businessman even when dealing with his father and brother. Business was business. Too much social justice among some black Americans means too much empathy in the world of contracts and profit margins and the ever present risk of bankruptcy. The parents and siblings of Berry Gordy lost money on Gordy’s first business, a record store in downtown Detroit. There was no empathy for brother Gordy as he made his pitch around the dinner table for a $500 loan from family. His sister was all about business. If you want to build a music production company from scratch, you better show me the details. Could it be that the empathy gene in Black America hurts black Americans in business?

2. Play life like a game. If one plays the game of life as if one is on the Titanic, one will not prosper and prevail. Dogma like Blackness Is Oppression, Nothing Else Matters and White Privilege robs young black people of the gamesmanship to succeed in enterprise. We should ditch the dogma and slogan words. Let’s teach young black people that they must play life like a game. Develop and distribute more games of strategy so the young can master the fine art of conquest, deferred gratification, and triumph against other tribes who may have different assets and liabilities. To me, this is common sense. No youngster will win at the game of life if he or she is taught failure is just a matter of time here on the Titanic of Oppression.

3. Do not fear losing. I love this life lesson. I really do. Did you know that Berry Gordy, Jr. lost his father’s money but had the gumption to come back and ask the family for a $500 loan to found a new business? That $500 loan was the seed money for Motown. Did you know that Percy Sutton sought funding from banks in New York City for an urban radio station company? Over 60 banks rejected Sutton but he kept plugging away until an investor said, yes. Sutton would use that seed money to create an empire of radio stations. He became a top ten Black Business in the U.S. and one of the wealthiest black Americans when I was a kid. Musk says it better than I can: “You will lose…It will hurt the first fifty times. When you get used to losing, you will play each game with less emotion.” Be more fearless, young readers. Take more risks.

4. Be proactive. Take charge of setting your own strategy. You will not reach the top if you take your cues from Ibram X. Kendi, Ta-Nehisi Coates and all the rest of dogmatists and sloganeers in the world. Examine your life, I say. Live an examined life. You can do it. It is possible. I do it every day. Take not your cues from the sheep. What more can I say?

5. Optimize every turn. A gifted family member (gifted like several family members) lacked the gene for opportunity and foresight. She sniffed her nose at an invitation to attend the Governor’s School for the Gifted. She couldn’t be bothered with submitting an application through the A Better Chance (ABC) program to a New England boarding school. My cousin Bruce said these opportunities only come by once or twice in a lifetime. Don’t be that family member. Don’t have the brains of a doctor and the blindness of a blind man. You will never get to Mars, according to Musk, if you let turns in your life slip away.

6. Double down. Play the game of life to the edge of the possible. There are no dragons in the southern night. No one cares about your race if you are strolling along Orange Avenue on Coronado island. Don’t be defeated by ghosts and goblins in your head. Live your life to the absolute fullness. Turn off your race consciousness switch. Leave it turned off. And guess what? Your life will be fuller and sweeter. I swear it. Happy Birthday, Lonely Substack!

7. Pick your battles. I read annoying stuff about blackness all the time. If I tried to respond to every annoyance, I would drain my mental resources. Notice how Artificial Intelligence (AI) gives me a welcomed respite from race. You should do the same, young reader. If you look for the bad, you will only see the bad in life. Every time you read a slogan word, seek out something positive for balance. I invite you to read about any of my pioneer black lawyers. One can find 150 stories about blackness and the human condition. No manipulation, just humanity as I could best perceive it. Pick your battles and steer clear of those who have a dire and despondent vision for Blackness.

   If there are over 40 million black Americans, there over 40 millions ways of perceiving blackness. Be your unique way out of over 40 million ways.

8. Unplug at times. “I had to stop playing because it was destroying my marriage,” Kimbal (Musk) says. Id. at p. 427 Give the black thing a rest. Even if you care about blackness, it is not worth 24 hours a day/7 days a week of rumination. There are more joyful ways to live life.

   Conclusion: Could it be that strategy games offer a reframing of the race dilemma? Might the game of conquest and dominance, Polytopia, crack open an otherwise stale discourse on blackness in America? I mean, we war game military strikes? Daniel Kototajlo has gamed out the p doom awaiting us with AI. See the AI Report 2027 Maybe, it is time for writers, scholars and intellectuals to game out a version of Polytopia to protect the hearts and minds of young black children from dogma and slogan words?

   What do you think?