The television programme ‘Traitors’ is much talked about currently, but behind the clickbait, it maybe offers some amusing and disturbing metaphors.
Traitors have the hidden advantage in the game and are defined by some distinct characteristics:
Selfishness: Not proper team players, Traitors collaborate with their fellows until it is no longer useful and they become disposable – Faithfuls recognise the Brutus attack by Traitors as a tell-tale characteristic
Lying: The truth is only what is communicable to Faithfuls, which is massaged and manipulated according to their perceived vulnerabilities. It is characterised by devious obfuscating language, designed to lull other players and divert attention from the vulnerabilities of Traitors and their actions
Benign manifestation: Traitors spin a story and characteristics and appearance of being a Faithful in order to remain undiscovered, an asp in the bosom, the most successful of such lie in wait at the heart of the action, watching the destruction and devastation around them, until it is too late to be discovered.
Language: Always saying one thing and meaning another, they obfuscate and twist and turn to avoid being caught in a lie – faithfuls who allow this manipulation are the most vulnerable to being left as ‘useful idiots’ to the end, where their gullibility is revealed.
Chaos: Traitors enjoy the ambiguity, backstabbing, attack on the collective structure and profit from the ensuing chaos, which hides their motives and subsequent moves.
Discomfort: Many a Traitor has been outed by their own discomposure due to their lies and betrayals and the memory and effort taken to maintain the façade.
Faithfuls have even clearer characteristics:
Visage: They are openly and happily faithful, until recruited to the darker cause, wherein they must feign the same untroubled air as they had previously, while burdened with the betrayal to their own self-interested survival in the game.
Endeavour: Faithfuls reward endeavour and team effort but also recognise they may have a Trojan horse in their midst who happily attains alongside them with a view to a last-minute steal.
Outspoken: It is a fine line between being an evangelist for the collective cause and inviting suspicion for guidance which proves false, mistaken as an agent of chaos, however well meaning – many a leader sacrificed to misguided scepticism, usually in ignorance of the greater sin closer to hand.
The Greater Good: Readily forming groups of allies, some mistakenly taking their rivals at face value, but ultimately forming a web of alliances which steadily reveals the inconsistencies and self-serving motives of the Traitors.
Pyre: Ultimately the effort is unrewarded if even one Traitor remains at the end, so ultimate vigilance, clear communication and teamwork is necessary to avoid a catastrophic calamity.
Sharing: If successful, the ultimate reward to a Faithful is the knowledge that individuals can only win if everyone wins and the prize is shared according to that fundamental principle.
Only one thing worse…..: There is only one thing worse to a Faithful than a Traitor, it is a bad Faithful, one who creates chaos and mistrust behind which the Traitors can conceal their moves – the ‘useful idiots’ who are unable to understand the game at play while undermining their own team. Gullible, well-intentioned but otherwise ignorant of obvious pitfalls and motives.