Notice that Toles uses the caricature of the tycoon from the MONOPOLY game to represent the rich and ultra-rich. MONOPOLY appeared in 1935, but was based on “The Landlord’s Game” which was devised in 1903. The original game was more explicitly didactic, but even the MONOPOLY game we all know is intended to teach us something: that the nature of capitalism is to concentrate all wealth into fewer and fewer hands, and to bankrupt all rivals and competitors. Oh, to suggest that luck as much as savvy goes into the creation of monopoly.So why has the right wing never condemned the game as left-wing propaganda? Because, it turns out that it is FUN to slowly grind down and impoverish the opposition and monopolize all wealth! Why it’s just a game! Who cares what happens to the losers? Who cares if the rules are fair or humane? It’s business, and that’s how business works! So the game, instead of providing an object lesson in how a set of rules can be written so that when they are played out a few are enriched and many are ruined, even when all start out on the same square one, - becomes instead a first step in acquiring the amorality that business requires! I read somewhere that the real wheelers-and-dealers don’t take what they do very seriously. It isn’t about the money, which they might very well just give away after they’ve gotten it: it’s about winning, about beating the other guy, about making the score, about coming out on top. No matter who suffers as a consequence. And isn’t that what MONOPOLY is all about, too?
Notice that Toles uses the caricature of the tycoon from the MONOPOLY game to represent the rich and ultra-rich. MONOPOLY appeared in 1935, but was based on “The Landlord’s Game” which was devised in 1903. The original game was more explicitly didactic, but even the MONOPOLY game we all know is intended to teach us something: that the nature of capitalism is to concentrate all wealth into fewer and fewer hands, and to bankrupt all rivals and competitors. Oh, to suggest that luck as much as savvy goes into the creation of monopoly.So why has the right wing never condemned the game as left-wing propaganda? Because, it turns out that it is FUN to slowly grind down and impoverish the opposition and monopolize all wealth! Why it’s just a game! Who cares what happens to the losers? Who cares if the rules are fair or humane? It’s business, and that’s how business works! So the game, instead of providing an object lesson in how a set of rules can be written so that when they are played out a few are enriched and many are ruined, even when all start out on the same square one, - becomes instead a first step in acquiring the amorality that business requires! I read somewhere that the real wheelers-and-dealers don’t take what they do very seriously. It isn’t about the money, which they might very well just give away after they’ve gotten it: it’s about winning, about beating the other guy, about making the score, about coming out on top. No matter who suffers as a consequence. And isn’t that what MONOPOLY is all about, too?