Socien's Blog

If you can’t beat them, join them. Have you ever been trapped in this principle (or whatever they call it)? By trapped I mean you suddenly find no other way but to adhere and join a camp you should have otherwise avoided. But trapped I am referring to the incidence of joining the camp knowing that there is no way out, a way out which you must have. It happens in life that after failing to beat them you join them and never get rid of them

A quick trace of the origins of the statement? Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), a prominent English author during his time, wrote in his work Polite Conversation. He wrote, ‘If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. If you can’t join ’em, beat ’em. If you can’t beat ’em or join ’em, damn ’em.” The second part of the saying that offers an option of damning them and not joining them and beating them has since fallen out of favour. Centuries between now and the initial deposition of the ink are telling about this wading of favour. The satirical writ (Polite Conversation) extends into, “Time is at once the most valuable and the most perishable of all our possessions.” Joining all the statements from Smith’s work that are in this paragraph makes it quite conclusive that you have to join them if you can’t beat them because time (and the passage of time) can beat you as well.

Beat them? By extension beat them in the statement if you can’t beat them, join them refer to phrases like “go without them other than staying on top of the competition. Therefore, the statement also says, that if an adversary and a neighbour who is good at doing the repairs and fittings work and you house is in need of them, hire  him. But then there are sub-plots in any given plot that outsiders may not understand when given a chance to narrate your story to them countless times. You have some foreign origins and you suspect your neighbour hates you for that. Whatever that thing is between you and neighbour, you are worried he may leave a leaking gas pipe in your house so that you can burn. The question is can you just join people, build relationships with those you cannot trust just because you cannot go without them or, specifically, you can’t beat them?

The idea of joining those you cannot beat makes sense if you are looking at it from a capitalistic point of view (I love capitalism). But the very idea does not make sense elsewhere. Capitalism values connections over intimacy, a handshake over trust. It does not have to complicate business by letting the hearts speak volumes for tenders, deals, acquisitions and accumulations. The handshake is quicker than waiting for intimacy to develop. Intimacy develops, and connections grow.

Joining people because you cannot beat them is attempting to seed a connection without the water of trust. If the progress you are looking for in your life is more than making money in your life, you need to avoid joining people you can’t beat. The statement “If you can’t beat them join them” is an advice against having patience.

There is a person who couldn’t make it to potential because he found it easier to join them than to develop his plans on his own. So he sold his business ideas cheaply to people who would later make millions out of them. There is a person who became a friend to people who shared a vision that was quite distant to hers because loneliness scared her. Her new friends peer-pressures her to forget her vision and purpose.

This idea of joining those you cannot beat will always benefit those already on top. It will always get you lost from your right path.