Free Pocket Protectors

Have you ever played “Monopoly” or “Life”? Of course you have. If so, you know why Bernie Madoff made off with so much money he swindled out of other people. And you are to blame for the Great Recession of the American economy.

Hyperbole, anyone?

If you think about it, just about everything we do as grownups we played as kids. But at some point, gradually, we have been driven to play at, rather than actually play those games. A buddy calls it the “Nerfing” of America.

I do believe that is an apropos appellation. What used to be the “Wild West” has become the “World Police”. Instead of being the head of the class, the straight-A student with a slide rule and pocket protector in his pocket, his mind full of Dungeons and Dragons, a heart full of dreams and possibilities, and his pants on fire for the future, what have we become? The class clown, an I-pod and Ritalin in his pocket, his mind full of Designer Labels and Grunge songs, his heart full of fears and desperations, his pants hanging below his undergarments.

The difference? Back then we were dangerous. Americans were best at being the first, the biggest, the toughest, the bullheaded-est, and, well, the best. If you didn’t believe it, you could just ask us. And we arguably were just what we said we were… but who would have argued? After all, we had the BOMB. The last checkered King, the final ‘X’ in the tic-tac-toe. The Zero Sum End Game. End of story. End of line.

Something happened. I think “Social Guilt” filtered in. The game was over, we had won, but we couldn’t get anyone else to play with us anymore. Instead of being the little guy getting sand kicked in our faces by the Old World powers, it was down to us, the gritty “George McFly” to Russia’s “ Biff Tannen”. And we all know how THAT turned out.

So, now, we have all the games in the game closet, and no one to play against us. But maybe that’s the real problem… play was never “against” anyone… it was always between people, the means to communicate and share observations.