When I was a kid, I loved playing Monopoly. The chance of hitting it big financially was incredibly tempting.

When I was in high school, we actually played a long running (multi day) game of Monopoly while in class. We started out playing by the board game rules, but somewhere in the middle of the game the teacher purposely became a dictator and changed the rules. His reason for using the game in the classroom was to see if the students would object to his dictatorial rulings. None of the students objected. They obediently followed his new rules.

That teacher probably thought he was showing us something in our psyche that refused to rebel against the arbitrary rulings of a manical despot. Thinking back in time, that teacher wasn't thinking clearly. From the start of our student careers we were instructed to "obey" the teacher, even if the "rulings" that were made by the teacher were viewed as unfair. This teacher expected the students to make an abrupt change in their dealings with a teacher while playing the game of Monopoly. A flawed scientific study if I ever saw one.

One of the last times that I played Monopoly was a computer version. That program was on a 3 & 1/2 disk, and was designed for a computer with an incredibly small memory file. In other words, very little graphics, bells and whistles. I found a bug in the program that allowed me to win everytime. If the computer wanted to buy a property from me, in order to get a Monopoly set of properties of one color, I would refuse the offer several times. On the third attempt I would counter with a devasting deal for the computer. The computer would agree, and I would take all of the computer's cash. It was never able to get back in a solvent position.

I even called the company to see if there was a way to make the game harder. They told me there wasn't any way to do that. In addition, nobody had ever asked them that question.

I'm being silly when I say that the games of "Life" and "Monopoly" were training aids for future Republicans. Just the same, they are both based on an adult subject - Amassing A Personal Fortune.

I have also enjoyed playing the kid-favorite game of "Life." Both games rely on luck to become a winner. "Monopoly" does have a small amount of strategy that is needed to accomplish the goal of "WORLD DOMINATION."

Posted below is a 60's TV commercial for the board game "Life." It is quite amusing to see the "FUTURE TO BE REPUBLICANS" tell the TV viewers that they made $50,000 in the stock market, while a "FUTURE NON-REPUBLICAN" tells the viewers that he has gone to the poorhouse.

 








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