Negotiating Authoritarianism: The Achilles Heel of Power and Control
On October 19, 1994, something remarkable happened in a gymnasium at the University of Manitoba. Two groups of university students played a sophisticated simulation called the Global Change Game, where they controlled the fate of the world for the next forty years. On the first night, 67 students who scored low on measures of authoritarianism cooperated internationally, demilitarized their regions, and managed to feed and provide healthcare for 8.7 billion people—though 400 million died from starvation and disease in the poorest regions. The next night, 68 students who scored high on authoritarianism played the same game. Within hours, they had triggered a nuclear holocaust that killed 7.4 billion people. Given a second chance, they started another war that killed 400 million more. By the end of their simulation, they had caused 9.5 billion deaths through war, starvation, and disease. Their world ended divided into armed camps threatening mutual destruction. This wasn't a differe...