Michael Moore’s new autobiographical book Here Comes Trouble has a chapter about his experience at Michigan Boys State. Like Moore, I also was selected by my school to attend the annual session of Boys State.

Moore’s experience was interesting. Mine was one of the failures of the program. Oh, I learned about the workings of government all right, but unlike Moore, it put me into a half century long funk about politics from which I’ve emerged only recently. Looking back, I now realize that I had a naïve and romantic notion of how government worked.

According to the organization’s website, “Boys State is an educational program sponsored by the American Legion Departments across the country to help young men learn about government and how it works. Our motto is ‘Learn by Doing.’ The Boys State educational staff's goal is to facilitate the learning process by giving the citizens of Boys State an opportunity to govern themselves, and to run their own state.”

When I arrived at Boys State, I had aspirations of running for “governor.” I also had some support. But there was a faction from Lansing (the state capital) that hit the ground running. I had the innocent notion that we would design and conduct political campaigns once we arrived at the conference, only to discover that the hotshots from Lansing already had their candidate picked, the campaign set up, posters printed, handouts ready, and the caucus organized by the time they hit Boys State. Us naïfs from the rest of the state stood like saplings in the path of an avalanche.

On the evening of the second night I was visited by two large delegates from the Lansing contingent. Anticipating the Godfather movies of the 70’s, we reasoned together. It was pointed out to me that by throwing my support behind the Lansing candidate, I might have a post in his cabinet. Running against the Lansing candidate, on the other hand, was discouraged. They didn’t actually threaten me. They just told me I really didn’t want to do that.

It was an educational evening.

I vaguely remember the Lansing candidate winning in a landslide. That lad has probably gone on to great success in the world as befits someone who had a handle on How Things Work at such an early age. In retrospect I have to admire the initiative and organization (with the exception of the goon squad). I felt at the time that the kid bent what I understood to be the rules, but as life has taught ever since, they remember that you won, not how you won. Just ask George Bush.

I was too much of an idealist at the time to be unaffected by the experience. It soured me on politics for the rest of my life. The perspective of later years has caused me to regret that deeply. Politics in the general sense is the “debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power,” and it is inherent in every human endeavor, even in groups as small as two people (aka a “relationship”). Things would have been a lot easier if I had learned that a lot earlier.

I have also learned that some people play by the rules, and some don’t. And some people do neither and make up new rules instead. How successfully you deal with people depends on how rapidly you recognize which group they belong to.