The Game of Life

When I was growing up, we didn’t have the Internet. We didn’t have hundreds of TV stations, movies on demand, or video games. What we did have were board games, some that even tried to teach life lessons about the real world.

And two succeeded …

One was called “The Game of Life.”  In it, you go to school, get a job, get married, raise a family, and eventually retire.  The person who ends up with the most money wins.

Will you go to college?  What career will you choose?  How many kids will you have?  With every turn, you get to “spin the wheel” of life to determine the next set of choices available to you.

The other game was called “Monopoly.”  In it, everyone starts off with the same amount of cash, and earns the same salary as they travel around the board.  With each “roll of the dice,” opportunities and challenges come your way, including options to buy land, houses and apartments. Your goal is to accumulate wealth, while avoiding taxes, the police, and greedy landlords along the way.

When playing Monopoly, wealth tends to accumulate in the hands of fewer and fewer players.  One by one, people are driven out of the game via bankruptcy, until just one person remains.

The Game of Life is a friendly game. Everyone starts out together, faces common life questions and challenges, and everyone finishes together.  The game of Monopoly, not so much.  While everyone starts out the same, one by one, people are forced out of the game when they can no longer pay their bills.

Life Lessons

People are divided today, because we are playing different games!

If you believe everything the media is telling you, and all of the “authorities” and “experts” they amplify, then you are probably playing the Game of Life. With every “spin the wheel,” you choose from life options as they are laid out for you.

If you have already lost your job, your home, or your business — or you are about to — you probably recognize the game as Monopoly. With every “roll of the dice,” you get closer and closer to wealth … or elimination.

We are divided today because people in the first group can’t see the world through the eyes of those in the second.  They can’t see the cheating that’s going on. They can’t see the corruption. They can’t see that the game is fixed. They can’t see the hopelessness.

They can’t see the remaining contenders are sociopath monopolists who will stop at nothing to “win” this game.  They will lie, they will cheat, they will kill … they will do whatever it takes to accumulate control over all of the world’s resources.

Whether your game is life or monopoly, our true adversaries are the forces of consolidation and control.

As always, thoughtful comments welcome.