What hath MGM wrought?

The End of Days is upon us!

And we have our good friends at MGM Resorts International to thank.

They have opened the seven seals of Revelation, poured out the seven bowls of wrath, and blown the seven trumpets.

They have decided to charge people for parking on the Strip.

For the first 13.8 billion years the universe has been in existence, the roughly 4.5 billion years the Earth has orbited the sun, and the 85 years since wide-open gambling has been legal in Nevada, free parking on the Strip has been the norm.

Until now, that is.

"MGM Resorts International to enhance guest parking experience," reads the (actual) headline of a company news release. Because paying for something you formerly got for free is so much better.

Newcomers to Las Vegas may not understand the magnitude of this apostasy. Allow me to try to explain:

If the Declaration of Independence were being written today in Las Vegas, "free Strip parking" would be enumerated with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as inalienable rights.

Even the mob didn't dream of charging people for parking on the Strip.

No matter how much other cities may charge for parking — and it can get extremely pricey — Las Vegans always knew that they could go home to free, plentiful parking.

Until now.

Oh sure, MGM is going to make some improvements. The company will add a $54 million, 3,000-space parking garage near its Excalibur hotel-casino. It will install signs showing how many spaces are available on a particular floor of a parking garage, and LED lights in garages to guide motorists to open parking spaces. (No more aimless wandering up and down rows!) Ultimately, you'll even be able to look on your smartphone to see which garages have space for your car before you even leave your house.

But you're going to start paying for the privilege: Overnight parking will be $10, and even a few hours at a resort to see a show, eat dinner or enjoy dancing water fountains or exploding volcanoes will cost you something. (You can avoid fees by taking the Mark of the Beast, er, joining the M life customer loyalty program.)

Long-suffering MGM Resorts spokesman Gordon Absher was getting an earful about the new parking fee from a certain local columnist on Friday when he gently noted that the free parking was never really free: MGM paid to build and maintain it as part of the cost of doing business. "That free parking was only free to the customers," he said.

Yes, but it was also considered a birthright, especially by old-time Las Vegans. Charging for parking on the Strip is a sacrilege, albeit a first-world type of sacrilege.

"People are exhibiting a certain level of emotion over this," Absher acknowledged. "This is a topic people have a certain amount of passion for."

That's putting it mildly! People have passion for their favorite football team. Getting rid of free parking on the Strip is more likely to spark a revolution! It's one of those everyday things we take for granted until they're gone, whose absence reminds us the world is not settled, the covenants between people are more fragile than we imagined, and that when Bernie Sanders complains about the depredations of big corporations and poor and middle-class wealth flowing to the top 1 percent, well, he's got a point.

MGM may have started this madness, but it won't be long until other gambling companies start doing the same. (The Review-Journal is owned by the family of Sheldon Adelson, who also owns The Venetian and Palazzo.) Remember when "resort fees" were a new and exotic way to price-gouge customers? Now they're de rigueur everywhere.

Oh, MGM, what have you done? You've ushered in the end of the age! You've loosed the Four Horsemen! And they'll probably have to pay to tie up their steeds on the Strip!

— Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist and co-host of the show "PoliticsNOW," airing at 5:30 p.m. Sundays on 8NewsNow. Follow him on Twitter (@SteveSebelius) or reach him at 702-387-5276 or SSebelius@reviewjournal.com.