Eric Berne caught people’s attention in 1964 with the publication of Games People Play, a manual on transactional analysis which codified, well, the games people play.

And people play them with intensity. It seems as if lately, one of the games, “If it weren’t for you,” gets played and replayed. My take on that game is people’s refusal to accept the blame for their actions.

Bad things happen; ergo, blame others, a rotten childhood, a domineering mother, an absentee dad, a boring teacher or mean boss.

But let’s not drift too far from a game I wish Berne had included, which I’m christening, “You Insult Me, You Insult Everybody Else.”

The game’s being played in light of a debate about what to name the new Santa Fe edifice on the site of the Old Sweeney Center, close to downtown.

If we could go back several decades, I’d try to locate the city councilman who steadfastly refused to endorse any plan to include “vista” in it. He identified a host of Santa Fe “vista” streets, buildings, schools, organizations and businesses and concluded that surely “vista” shouldn’t be the extent of our namabilities.

In Las Vegas, we have at least three vistas: Sierra, Monte and Alta — which mean about the same thing.

But let’s get back to games. On May 11, the Santa Fe New Mexican carried a mean-spirited letter to the editor signed by an Anne McGovern. It implored the powers-that-be not to give the new convention center a “foreign-language” name.

A foreign language to the letter writer, it would appear, includes Spanish. Now aside from eliminating the cliched “vistas,” such a prohibition would really narrow things down.

Let me explain:

McGovern wrote that using a foreign-language name “would be an insult to the thousands of men and women who risk their lives every day defending this country.”

While it is true that the nation owes a debt of gratitude to our armed forces, the lady doth commit a host of fallacies, methinks.

She uses an appeal to authority with the temerity to believe that any veteran would even care which language gets to adorn the convention center.

The game she plays is one in which she obviously hopes officials will avoid any hint of a Spanish (or anything else that sounds foreign) in naming the center. So fearful would people be of insulting our troops that they’d have to settle on some vanilla-custard-type name.

It’s hard to imagine a Marine on Omaha Beach, for example, claiming the battle concerns the name city councilors choose for the erstwhile Sweeney Center. While it’s true that wars have been fought to ensure freedom, whether one uses English, Spanish or Aleut has nothing to do with battlefields.

The game — if it all goes well for McGovern — guarantees not only a regional insult but something whose effects go far beyond the limits of the capital city. You insult me, you insult everybody else.

And notice how generalized insults permeate the airwaves, especially around election time. The nation couldn’t dream of electing Hillary Clinton, at least not if the extent of our daily exposure to information comes from Fox News.

And why would Hillary fail to be a good fit? Well, haven’t you noticed that she has a loud cackle?

And Obama has an indiscreet, outspoken, opinionated minister. Perhaps he also has a barber who spouts unpopular opinions, or a meter reader who’s closed-minded.

But I need to refrain from specifying occupations, lest I be accused of insulting every barber who trimmed so that we might be free.

In the heat of the political climate, lots of people say, “If the immigrants refuse to learn English, they should go back where they came from.”

That sentiment generally comes from those who argue that “English is what we use here.” And of course, that begs the question of the quality of the English of the go-back-where-you-came-from contingent.

Certainly, the acquisition of a second or third — or 20th — language enriches people, but demanding that newcomers learn English speaks volumes about the low esteem in which Spanish, for example, is held by some.

The letter writer might be disappointed to learn the extent to which “foreign languages,” as she calls them, influence even what we call English.

The pickings for naming the Santa Fe facility would indeed be slim if the center were to contain no foreign words at all.

Remember that way back in 1066 there was an event called the “Norman Invasion,” which had a profound effect on what was then English.

So thorough was the influence of the Normans on England that English changed radically, adopting a large percentage of words from Latin, Greek, French, Italian and Spanish, among others. Perceived social status was also a factor.

For example, those of humble trades, such as shoemaker, miller and baker, tended to have those Anglo-Saxon names. Those in more highly skilled trades tended to adopt French names such as Mason, Painter and Tailor.

Animals in the field, such as ox, sheep and cow, retained their English names. But cooked and placed on the table, the food got called beef, pork, veal and bacon — old French terms.

English, we need to realize, is quite a comprehensive melange of words borrowed from many other languages.

And as for the Santa Fe letter writer, well, I’ll bet she drove her El Dorado to her home on La Avenida del Sol, where she stepped on to her patio, cracked open a jar of picante sauce to dip her nachos in, as she enjoyed barbacoa. And maybe even a Corona.

And after that, she may have spent time ruminating over the games people play and about the horrid prospect of having some city officials dare to give the convention center a foreign name.