https://pjmedia.com/spengler/2011/10/03/a-beautiful-mess/feed/PJ Media is a leading news site covering culture, politics, faith, homeland security, and more. Our reporters and columnists provide original, in-depth analysis from a variety of perspectives.en-usTue, 09 Jun 2026 23:30:56 -0400<![CDATA[John Nash, the &#8220;Beautiful Mind&#8221; in the film based on Sylvia Nasar&#8217;s biography, was a far less pleasant fellow than the character played by Russell Crowe, and the &#8220;Nash Equilibrium&#8221; a far less pleasant vision of the world than the book or film allowed. Nash demonstrated that it is quite possible for competitors to choose mutual annihilation as a matter of rational self-interest. Let&#8217;s say you belong to a neolithic tribe that hunts mammoths. If the tribe next door kills more mammoths than you do, they eat more, get stronger, and kill you (and possibly eat you, too). So you kill as many mammoths as possible, both to eat more and deny sustenance to the competition. So does everyone else. Mammoths become extinct, and you all die out. A simple way to put it is that people only accept a solution as long as it includes them.]]>Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:31:34 -0400<![CDATA[David P. Goldman]]>https://pjmedia.com/david-p-goldman/2011/10/03/a-beautiful-mess-n130556