The End is Nigh
God and Satan
weep.
Here inside my
chest,
the cavity of
heart,
they form an
argument I can’t refute.
They are tired
of throwing dice
for the
covenant of soul,
then they
coveted these pieces,
now they look
to other things.
I catch
unstable in a net,
these deities
all turn their heads.
The game seems
finished,
a new one grows
indifferent,
they toss the board,
Monopoly money
flies,
the little dog,
the top hat,
the race car
disappear.
They’re going
home,
the curtain of
the universe is torn.
Satan and all
other gods abscond,
they will take
no one with them.
Humankind is
not,
equality has
made us 49 and 49,
2% is much too
much to gamble on,
the gods have
left us to ourselves
and we didn’t
even know it.
Elizabeth J. Magie created "The Landlord's Game" to popularize the radical economic ideas of Henry George in 1902 and had it patented in 1904. She formed the Economic Game Company to publish it and sent a revised version to George S. Parker's toy company around 1910, but he was not interested, in part because of the success of the "Rook" card game. He also declined a revised version in 1924. But Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania professor Scott Nearing began using the game as a teaching tool, and one of his students Rexford Guy Tugwell took it with him to Columbia University. It became a popular game at various colleges and universities, and various people began distributing their own versions. Charles Darrow, a domestic heater salesman, made his own version, which he called "Monopoly," and in 1934 tried to sell it to the Milton Bradley Company and Parker Brothers, but both firms rejected it. However, after the board game sold well at the F.A.O. Schwarz toy store in New York during the Christmas season, Parker president Robert Barton reconsidered. The firm bought the game in March 1935 and then bought up Magie's orinal patent and other existing versions. One of Darrow's innovations was based on his niece's suggestion that players should use charms from a girl's charm bracelet to mark their progress around the board. Parker Brothers decided to use die-cast metal tokens for playing pieces, initially a battleship, a cannon, a clothes iron, a shoe, a top hat, and a thimble. The top hat was smilar to the one worn by the game's mascot Mr. Monopoly (originally called Rich Uncle Pennybags). The race car was the next token to be added, modeled after Mr. Monopoly's roadster. The Scottie dog was not added until the 1950s.
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