In the standard liberal picture, the savior complex is always at work. And both blues and reds fall victim to this. The vividness of the outcome, as Kahneman and Taversky would put it, no matter how unlikely, is what keeps the ideological fantasy intact. This constitutive lack appears as merely a “missing half” when in fact it is much closer to a needle in a hay stack. Going further, it is this idea of the missing piece, the one needed in order to form a cohesive whole, that drives the systemic rift ever deeper. This is akin to the person clutching Park Place proudly claiming that they’re practically already a millionaire, “All I need is a Boardwalk!” They hold steadfastly to the belief that their position is the legitimate one and that they are on the right side of history. This is much like the bearer of a Park Place game piece who cynically proclaims, “There aren’t any Boardwalks, man!”Īnd conversely, from the naive-idealistic perspective, individuals espouse their particular viewpoint as if they know the Truth which all others cannot get or are unable to grasp. Here is where I see the first connection to the political ideology at play in America.įrom a cynical-realist perspective, both Democrats and Republicans cannot seem to fathom the validity of the other’s political position, preferring to view the other as remote, inconceivable, or even unreal. The catch was that while there was an overabundance of Park Places, Boardwalks were always extraordinarily rare. The tearable plastic tabs, always in doubles, featuring different properties from the classic Hasbro board game, represented perhaps the ultimate example of excess enjoyment (value over and above the product itself) consumers now come to expect.īeyond the flashy presentation, at base, this was a simple lottery game where the biggest prize of all was the million dollars awarded to the person who collected both Park Place and Boardwalk. Throughout the nineties the wildly popular game pieces were ever-present on McDonald’s soda cups and fry containers.
Much like collecting Park Place and Boardwalk in the McDonald’s Monopoly game, Democrats and Republicans must work together for the overall success of the country - to win. On appearance, the political picture in America presents itself as an over-simplified dichotomy wherein two parts (or pieces), individual rights and an effective state apparatus, must come together in order to form a cohesive democratic union. The McDonald’s Monopoly game helps shed light on the fundamental discord which sustains America’s bipartisan political deadlock.
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