The American Spectator

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Another Perspective

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The winning strategy turned out to be the simples -- Tit for Tat. A Tit for Tat player cooperates on the first round, then each time copies the other player's action from the previous round. If you cooperate, I cooperate. If you betray, then I betray. Over the long term, this strategy elicited the most cooperation from other players. On this kind of voluntary reciprocal understanding, he said, civilizations are born.

There was only one problem. With certain players, Tit for Tat failed completely. Most problematic was what could be called the "neurotic." The neurotic player starts with a bad attitude and betrays on the first round. Then he plays Tit for Tat on each succeeding round. After that one bad beginning, the neurotic and Tit for Tat never cooperate. There are also players that have nasty attitudes and will betray even after a long series of successful co-operations. With these players, Tit for Tat also has trouble adjusting.

So the inventors went back for a few more refinements and found an even better strategy, called "forgiving" Tit for Tat. "Forgiving" generally plays Tit for Tat, but occasionally allows a betrayal go unpunished. This breaks the cycle of self-defeat and gets both players back on track. The same strategy works at setting things right with other recalcitrant players.

That's what Christmas is about. Christmas is the time when we wipe the slate clean, when people are generous and forgiving, when the animosities of the past year can be forgotten, and when everyone gets the chance to make a fresh start. It's a way of breaking those past cycles of self-defeat.

Two weeks ago I was at the Jerusalem Summit, an interfaith conference trying to promote peace in the Middle East. One of the speakers was Naomi Darwish, a Palestinian woman whose father was killed on a raid into Israel in the 1950s. She grew up hating Jews and learning arithmetic by saying, "If you have ten Jews and you kill five, how many do you have left?"

Then she went to the University of Cairo and began to learn more about the world. Finally she emigrated to the United States. With tears in her eyes, she recounted the overwhelming emotion of finding Jews, Christians, and Moslems in this country interacting without suspicion or hatred. She had never encountered this kind of good will. The combination of American generosity and forgiveness was overwhelming. As a result, she has founded Arabs for Israel and is an inspirational speaker before groups of all faiths.

It is in these moments when the resentments of the past can be forgotten and everyone given a fresh start that the hope for peace on earth good will toward men lies. Christmas provides us with one of them every year. There should be many, many more.

Merry Christmas, everybody.

topics:
Religion, Israel