My favourite simulation to run with my class is a game called StarPower. Originally developed in 1969, it is a teaching tool that still stands the test of time in showcasing the use and abuse of power.

For the first time in years I got to run the game.
And the results… were exactly the same as before.

My students, even though they are more aware of the issues of today than ever before, fell right into the simulation’s trap. Those who took power in the game attempted to use and abuse it all the way to their supposed victory.

The problem with power is once you get it, and you’re rewarded within a system for the control you can exert once you do, you will do anything and everything to keep it. You don’t wield it for the betterment of others, but for ensuring you maintain it perpetually.

Robert Caro wrote a brilliant biography on Robert Moses all about this (it’s a book I recommend everyone read at some point in their lives) and followed it up with a series on Lyndon B. Johnson. They’re long reads, but illuminate the issue so wonderfully.

The nice thing about the simulation is it has an end-point where participants are stripped of their status and we can debrief about what happened.

Unfortunately, we can’t do that in life.

The closest thing we can do is try to change the system that allows this behaviour in the first place.