Here we all are, a week later. America seems to still be high on the news that we elected Barack Obama as our 44th president, and really, can you blame us? I mean, puppies are awesome.
And I realized this morning why it is I can still hear a news article on recent events and go "Wee, Obama!" in squealing girlish glee: Obama didn't "win". Not in any way we're used to. Anymore, America seems to equate winning with playing a game.
Last night, Makal and I played a round of classic Monopoly. Within a few passes of GO, I had bought all four railroads, one utility and a handful of assorted properties. And not only did Makal begin landing on my properties right away, but he almost always landed on my railroads shortly after passing go. And when someone owns all four railroads, that's $200 in "rent"... which is also the amount you get for passing GO. So he wasn't making any money--it was all going to be--and to add insult to injury he started landing himself in jail with startling frequency. In the meantime, I kept circling the board and buying up properties.
We very quickly established that this particular game of Monopoly was not unlike the separation between the upper and lower classes of America. Makal went to jail for no reason other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time, was forced to pay exhorbitant amounts for transportation, and owned very little in terms of property. Whereas I, because of my early lead, got to skate around the board easily and had fat stacks of cash. It was an extremely one-sided match. Nevermind the fact that I was also the banker, and could easily have been pulling 10s out when Makal wasn't looking... ;D (Sound familiar to anyone?)
I bought houses to attach to properties not because I needed to, but just to get Makal's money all the faster. It's not like I had anything else to do with my money. I happily took property cards as rent payment instead of cash. When Makal landed on the Luxury Tax square, he cried out, "Why am I the one that has to pay a luxury tax?!" It was true; there was nothing luxurious about his experience, especially since I was the one benefiting from his misfortune. We ended the game with $830 and $15 in cash, respectively.
You probably think I got sidetracked from my original point, but hear me out. That extremely one-sided game of Monopoly is exactly the sort of "winning" that America is used to. It may not be a game to us, the lower and middle classes, but it sure as hell seems to be a game to "them". And when looking at the election results in 2000 and 2004, those were a type of win that we sure weren't used to. Thusly, our interpretation of the word became corrupted over time.
Throughout this election, I have feared not that Obama would lose, but that other campaigns would resort to dirty tricks, back-alley deals, and the general sort of upper-class player advantages we've come to expect from politicians. I was afraid of the game. And while we can rest assured that yeah, the other campaigns sure as hell tried their hand at some deceptive dice rolling, the magic here is that Obama was not playing their game. You can't cheat to win a game if you're the only one playing. And though I feel like Obama was not playing their game, I think he was still out to win.
Win, verb: 1. To achieve victory or finish first in a competition; 2. To achieve success in an effort or venture.
By not playing the game, he elevated himself above it. Obama was running for president, not winner of Monopoly. This wasn't some playground game of keep-away. And as the people, we could sense this. We would listen to this man speak, and the eloquency of his presentation would knock us upside the head. Screw the game, this was a man we weren't used to. A real politician. A real chance for America to be America. It may seem to the world that our country had gone mute, but we quickly saw the reality of the situation before us. We could see our president.
It's been a wonderfully refreshing thing to see someone of President-elect Obama's caliber run such an honest, open campaign and have it end in victory. And we remain excited not just because of the changes he will make, but also because of the change he has already affected. America will not be tolerating the old campaign behaviours in our future presidential elections, we won't take the same degree of dealings that occur beyond the public's eye. It truly is a new America, and we couldn't be happier to live here.
1 comments:
Coincidentally, this is the very reason Monopoly was developed in the first place. To teach everyday people how the rich essentially controlled the market like a game.
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