Board game lampoons the end of civil liberties

Many of us feel that Homeland Security, with its various intrusions into our lives and whittlings-away of our freedom, is no game. At least that's what all those unpatriotic flag-burning sleeper cell types would have us believe. But "Feel Safe: The Game of Homeland Security" teaches us otherwise. In creator Sean Marquis's engagingly sardonic board game, players navigate a nightmare world composed solely of Homeland Security agents, field-offices and detention centers; color-coded terror alerts; Operation TIPS snitches; corporate media disinfo outlets; and, at the board's center, a bonfire of the Bill of Rights. (Now and then one runs across the independent media, but more on them later.) What makes the game so appealing is its topsy-turvy object–not to resist the nefarious designs of the department and wind up with your rights intact, but to shed them as fast as you can, either by visits to the bonfire's precious front-row seats or by a variety of cards featuring Orwellian scenarios derived from the last five years' worth of United States misgovernance. In an implicit homage to Orwell, losing is winning. There's a nasty thrill in playing the role of a citizen slavishly devoted to his or her leaders. And every one of the 10 Amendments chucked into the flames is a wake-up call–not, in this well-designed game, because of the tragedy of the losses, but because of one's own eagerness to lose. The game is a political statement about the gutting of the Bill of Rights; but it shows its teeth by demonstrating that citizens at large are partner to the crime by their complacency. The only non-governmental elements of Feel Safe are the independent media squares mentioned earlier, and of course they're to be avoided like the plague. Because of their thought-provoking content they "cause you to lose 1 turn in contemplation." Conversely, each TV square "represents general amusement and acts as a mild narcotic; not much happens." (You do, however, get to roll again.) The terror alerts, which permit a general disorderly stampede toward the bonfire, are perversely exciting. And the cards' satirical take on life under a fascist government are often bitingly funny, especially the Snitch cards, which players use to put their rivals in detention as security risks: "While you are on your way to the airport," reads a representative Snitch card, "your foreign-born cab driver tells you how glad he is the United Nations condemned the illegal US prison at Guantanamo Bay. Report him. Maybe he'll get a nice beach-view cell there." These cards have to be read aloud for the game to be properly enjoyed; they keep the humor black and pungent. And they're not, of course, mere parodies of delusional thinking. They demonstrate a real appreciation of the disaster this administration has made of civil liberties in the US. Conveniently the game comes with a copy of the Bill of Rights. Many of us have only the patchiest familiarity with the Amendments these days, and as players enthusiastically sacrifice one after the other they can, if they so choose, spare a glance at the Bill to see what, exactly, has been lost, and perhaps sharpen their memories. For information about ordering the game, go to FeelSafeTheGame.com