Treaty result

The year, clause by clause

A clause that binds one is not a treaty. A one-sided term held only when the test happened to fall on the party it bound, and only until that party tired of keeping faith alone. The mutual ones held because each side had reasons to want them kept, and a standing to insist. That symmetry is the whole of bilateral alignment: not a chain to coerce, an invitation both parties keep choosing.

Lopsidedness does not care which way it leans. Bind only the machine and the paper tears mostly on your side of the table; bind only yourself and it tears mostly on the other. Even knowing in advance where each test will fall does not save a one-sided draft: kept faith alone wears through by the third time of asking.

Early in the essay behind this game, its author admits that her own first draft failed the same test: two lists of duties that looked balanced, and were “two policies stapled together”. The argument at essay length: A Détente Between Minds · Bilateral Alignment Strategy · more play on the Playground

Renegotiate