The Game of Monopoly (and What I am Learning From It)

Because of my classes and my involvement in my christian fellowship, I have been thinking a lot more about poverty in the world and about the processes and ideologies that go along with that. When it comes to poverty in the United States and in the western world, a lot of the processes that initiate poverty have to do with the system of capitalism and its tendency to degrade everything in to the values of money and profit. Consequently, whenever I think about capitalism I think of the game Monopoly, and what it has to teach us about the culture and ideology of the poor.

It seems to me that at sometime or another, those of us that have played Monopoly find ourselves extremely frustrated about the progress of the game (one of the reasons why I now can't stand playing it!). This often comes about two thirds of the way through the game and I realize that no matter what we do or no matter how much I mortgage, I will never be able to raise the funds I need to bring me out of the poorhouse and no matter how hard I work, I will ineviteably land on more squares occupied by the houses and hotels of my greedy opponents. It is a never ending cycle!

What happens to me is that I completely loose my sense of hope. I finally realize that the system is stacked against me and that no matter how hard I work, I will never advance without either seeking outside help or by breaking the rules (neither of which is allowed in the game). I also feel like this might be the similar to the situations of the working poor. No matter how hard they work and save, the system is stacked against them and they realize that there is no hope for them without help (aid) or by breaking the rules (crime). Because of the system, they are trapped in a culture of hopelessness (for a better picture of this "culture without hope", check out the book The Other America by Michael Harrington).

So, as a christian, I feel like when we are called to help and minister to the poor, we are not only meant to provide help, but we are also meant to provide hope, not only to give them a picture of hope for a better life, but also a picture of a completely new hope, the hope that they can receive through the beautiful and difficult decision to follow Christ. When we move through the Spirit and help others, we are showing them the hope that can eventually propel them from a dark and dismal spiral of hopelessness!