Imagine you were invited to play a game of Monopoly with a few other people. Looking forward to testing your wit and daring, you pick your icon and begin the game, only to discover one player has already gone round the board three times and bought half the properties available. Arguing that this is patently unfair, you are put in your place by the suggestion you are merely a sore loser, and perhaps more risk would see you become as successful. Biting your tongue, you continue the game, despite being bled dry almost every move, when you land on a property owned by the ruthless player with the head-start.
Worn down, you are on the point of quitting, until a new player joins. Thinking they may be worth knowing, and accepting they will be in the same hopeless position as yourself, you continue, until the tycoon player introduces this new challenger as their offspring, handing them a share of their properties, meaning they begin way ahead of any other new players. Once again, any objection is met with a chorus of derision, and accusations of ‘schadenfreude’.
If only it were really just a game.
What hath blog wrought? 