The game of Moral High Ground (reproduced completely below):
At last it is time to reveal to an unwitting world the great game of Moral High Ground. Moral High Ground is a long-playing game for two players. The following original rules are for one M and one F, but feel free to modify them to suit your player setup:
The object of Moral High Ground is to win.
Players proceed towards victory by scoring MHGPs (Moral High Ground Points). MHGPs are scored by taking the conspicuously and/or passive-aggressively virtuous course of action in any situation where culpability is in dispute.
(For example, if player M arrives late for a date with player F and player F sweetly accepts player M’s apology and says no more about it, player F receives the MHGPs. If player F gets angry and player M bears it humbly, player M receives the MHGPs.)
Point values are not fixed, vary from situation to situation and are usually set by the person claiming them. So, in the above example, forgiving player F might collect +20 MHGPs, whereas penitent player M might collect only +10.
Men’s MHG scores reset every night at midnight; women’s roll over every day for all time. Therefore, it is statistically highly improbable that a man can ever beat a woman at MHG, as the game ends only when the relationship does.
Having a baby gives a woman +10,000 MHG points over the man involved and both parents +5,000 MHG points over anyone without children.
My ex-bf and I developed Moral High Ground during our relationship, and it has given us years of hilarity. Straight coupledom involves so much petty point-scoring anyway that we both found we were already experts.
By making a private joke out of incredibly destructive gender programming, MHG releases a great deal of relationship stress and encourages good behavior in otherwise trying situations, as when he once cycled all the way home and back to retrieve some forgotten concert tickets “because I couldn’t let you have the Moral High Ground points”. We are still the best of friends.
One of the first comments is something I’ve been saying for a while, about how to admit that you were wrong about something, instead of clinging to a broken opinion out of stubborn pride:
Try to make it a personal policy to prove yourself WRONG on occasion. And get excited about it. Realizing you’ve been wrong about something is a sure sign of growth, and growth is exciting.
The key is to actually enjoy becoming less wrong, and to take pride in admitting mistakes. That way it doesn’t take willpower, which makes everything so much easier.
The game of Moral High Ground (reproduced completely below):
From Metafilter
The whole thread is about relationship hacks—it’s fascinating.
One of the first comments is something I’ve been saying for a while, about how to admit that you were wrong about something, instead of clinging to a broken opinion out of stubborn pride:
The key is to actually enjoy becoming less wrong, and to take pride in admitting mistakes. That way it doesn’t take willpower, which makes everything so much easier.
But apparently it still wasn’t enough to keep them together...
Not all relationships need to last forever, and it’s not necessarily a failure if one doesn’t.
Yoreth may subtract 50 MHG points from hegemonicon but also loses 15 himself.