Link: https://substack.com/home/post/p-170239380
Please see the link above for the source text.
Unspoken Rules
by R.D. Laing
Jennifer Marohasy
Aug 06, 2025
They are playing a game. They are playing at not playing a game. If I show them I see they are, I shall break the rules and they will punish me.
I must play their game, of not seeing I see the game.
— R.D. Laing, Knots (1970)
This is not traditional poetry but a poetic, aphoristic exploration of human relationships, communication, and psychological games, written in a style that reflects the paradoxical nature of interpersonal dynamics.
The passage captures Scottish psychiatrist Laing’s interest in how people trap themselves and each other in unspoken rules and contradictions.
This is the game so many scientists play, especially when it comes to the failed paradigm of human-caused global warming.
Much thanks to Ian Howard for sharing the work of R.D. Laing with me.
If you want to better understand the psychology of global warming, consider reading my Counterpoint from earlier in the week, you can find it here
https://substack.com/home/post/p-170063103 .
Much thanks to Susan Ball for the minor but important editing, since I first posted it.