# Monopoly: Capitalism



## Abishai100 (Dec 19, 2016)

Imagine that the Hindu deity Shiva (god of destruction) plays the American real-estate board game Monopoly (Parker Brothers) with a (fictional) demon-warlock named Deformer (a 'magician' who likes to philosophize about the metaphysical 'deformity' surrounding profiteerism).

Shiva is a sage-like deity, while Deformer (as his name implies) is a disfigured Devil's Advocate of sorts.

Shiva suggests that profiteerism-based systems (e.g., capitalism) create opportunities for 'teamwork games' and 'competitive learning,' while Deformer suggests that profiteerism-based systems make 'game-players' look like pirates and sharks (or perhaps even tycoons).

Let's entertain the following mock game-dialogue between these two characters, a mock dialogue that can help us construct discussions about profit-based economic systems.

I'm using the game Monopoly, since it symbolizes competitive bargaining and capital-based decision-making.

Can we use Monopoly to talk about Adam Smith's _The Wealth of Nations_?


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SHIVA: Let's play a round of Monopoly!
DEFORMER: I like the word 'monopoly,' but I suspect Bill Gates does not!
SHIVA: Intellectual property (e.g., Internet-posted data) is still not real estate.
DEFORMER: It is becoming real estate.
SHIVA: Perhaps. You go first in the game.
DEFORMER: I roll a 9 and will purchase the Connecticut Avenue tile.
SHIVA: Trying to collect on the early real-estate groups, eh?
DEFORMER: First-come, first-serve in competitive economics.
SHIVA: My turn.  I roll a 11 and will purchase St. Charles Place.
DEFORMER: [25 turns later]  I roll 6 and own the red-group with Kentucky Avenue.
SHIVA: [5 turns later] I roll a 10 and will build a hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue.
DEFORMER: [6 turns later] I own the most lucrative pieces (Boardwalk and Park Place). 
SHIVA: I own the green, orange, and yellow-groups.
DEFORMER: You own more but less valuable real estate!
SHIVA: Practical diversification of territorial area makes for more holistic empires.
DEFORMER: Monopoly represents risk-scale; greed is only a 'duty-deformity'!

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*
Play Monopoly Online*


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## Abishai100 (Jan 8, 2017)

_*Red Debts*_


I think a useful philosophy (or 'school of thought') to use for the evaluation of capitalism as a beneficial political model is *Misanthropy*.

Misanthropia (or the general antagonistic view towards the scientific behavior of civilization) can be considered purely psychiatric (e.g., anti-social moods) but it is also considered a formal world-view (similar to atheism).

The society-critical lyrical writer Jonathan Swift (_Gulliver's Travels_) was considered by some critics to be a formal philosophical misanthrope, since he expounded on the intellectual value of deconstructing humanity's unrefined activities (e.g., bigotry).

We can use misanthropy to dissect the aspect of Capitalism Theory that addresses and 'condones' monopolies, since misanthropy deals specifically with sociological activity (e.g., mass production) that seems counter-productive (e.g., anti-ethnic dictatorships similar to Hitler's Germany).


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## Kingman (Jan 13, 2017)

Any Hindus here ,, they will laugh at you


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## Treeshepherd (Jan 15, 2017)

Shiva is the god of creative destruction. Capitalism fosters creative destruction. The automobile destroyed the horse and carriage industry, and so forth


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## Abishai100 (Jan 16, 2017)

_*Mergers & Acquisitions*_

Well here's a more applicable use of this debate topic involving discrimination between mergers (e.g., LLCs) and acquisitions (e.g., hostile take-overs).

We'll use two kinds of abstracted 'creatures' to frame this debate, and this time the debate is between Shiva (Hindu god of destruction) and Krishna (Hindu god of negotiation).


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SHIVA: The sci-fi horror film _Leviathan_ describes a creature that gorges and merges with human flesh.
KRISHNA: Mergers comprise important corporate events, as do acquisitions or hostile take-overs. 
SHIVA: If a creature merges with flesh (or another creature), it becomes a hybrid or 'super-creature.'
KRISHNA: If, on the other hand, a creature devours the flesh (or another creature), it becomes a 'king.'
SHIVA: Mergers in capitalism can be very profitable.
KRISHNA: Hostile take-overs can also be very profitable.
SHIVA: If it is more profitable to merge than take-over, then companies will seek a merger.
KRISHNA: Hence, profitability gauges decision-making in capitalist systems.
SHIVA: What if the risk is 50/50?  What if it is equally profitable to merge or take-over?
KRISHNA: Why would it be equally 'nutritious' for a creature to merge _or_ devour?
SHIVA: Well, the female praying mantis devours her male companion after being fertilized by him.
KRISHNA: So merge and _then_ devour!
SHIVA: This is arguably how Ray Kroc turned McDonald's into an empire, and now there's a film about him.
KRISHNA: I'd be more terrified of a devouring/carnivorous creature than an organically-merging blob.

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## Abishai100 (Feb 17, 2017)

*The Haunted Mansion

*
There's a strange link between the idealism/optimism surrounding the pursuit of the proverbial 'American Dream' and the 'campfire spook-tales' involving the acquisition of fortunes/treasures. Such an interest in imprinted onto world literature/cinema such as _The Gift of the Magi_, _Leprechaun_, and _Casino_.

How does 'fortune-paranoia storytelling' affect our socio-economic perspective on our species' control of the distribution of wealth?


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Oscar was an ambitious Wall Street bureaucrat who just made a deal with the Devil to find the key to guaranteed wealth --- fortune-telling! If Oscar could predict the future of stocks, he could make himself an incredible multi-millionaire. Within three years, Oscar's personal net worth exceeded $30 Million. He was so happy he purchased a yacht and went sailing towards New Zealand.

While en-route to New Zealand, Oscar encountered a terrifying humanoid sea creature (very intelligent) named Roscoe the Genie. Roscoe claimed the Devil gave him the keys to undo Oscar's life, so Roscoe did the deed and profited greatly! Roscoe was now demanding an entertainment-contract benefit --- e.g., a produced TV show about crypto-oceaonography as presented in the James Cameron film _The Abyss_.

Oscar realized his personal daydreams regarding private-profit were now shattered by the metaphysical challenges posed by the forces of mob psychology and risk-based networking decisions. In other words, even Roscoe the Genie wanted to profit from Oscar's good fortune. Oscar concluded that he had become a modern capitalism 'wolf totem' character signifying a natural human fascination with evolution-based self-reliance.

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*Mythic Humanoids*


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