French class-war board game sells out
When does a class warrior become a sell-out? Two French sociologists created a board game based on social injustice and the class struggle, and so many shoppers flocked to buy it that all 10,000 copies sold out within three weeks.
Kapital! was created by 73-year-old Monique Pinçon-Charlot and her husband Michel, 77. Over the past three decades the two sociologists have collaborated on written works including Voyage to the Upper Middle Class, Sociology of the Bourgeoisie, Lucky Millionaires, The Violence of the Rich and Why are the Rich Getting Richer and the Poor Getting Poorer?. Earlier this year, they followed up their 2010 book The President of the Rich (about Nicolas Sarkozy) with The President of the Ultra-Rich: A Chronicle of Class Contempt in the Politics of Emmanuel Macron.
The sociologists based the board game on the gap between rich and poor - like Monopoly, but laced with guilt rather than greed. One Kapital! playing card says: “You are entering the exclusive club of individuals who own the world’s most luxurious cruise ships,” but the underlying aim of the game is to exclude others: by reaching the “tax haven” and becoming a billionaire, the winner will relegate rivals to the ranks of the middle class or even the struggling poor.
“Not only do you have to finish first,” explained Monique Pinçon-Charlot, “but you should also have money, as well as social, cultural and symbolic capital. Just like in real life, the dominant player has the biggest chance to win.
“The subtitle of the game is ‘Who will win the class war?’ because the extreme extent of social dominance and exploitation in Emmanuel Macron’s France has reached such a point that it is no longer a class struggle, but rather a war.”
Whether or not everyone buying the game agrees with Pinçon-Charlot is up for debate. Giving the conversational equivalent of a Gallic shrug, one Parisian shop owner simply said: “People look for creative ideas – and this one is creative. That’s why it’s sold out.”
