Saturday, November 7, 2015
The Vegas Theology
God is the house, and the house always wins. I don't mean that in a good way. I mean we lose in the end. Everything.
This is the Vegas Theology. Everything is carefully stacked against us. Whatever glamor surrounds us in whatever casino we've landed in, it is a mere patina over desperate striving and the steady drumbeat of people losing and losing again.
The house has cornered all the odds. The house has the law on its side. The house has written all the rules and has the muscle to enforce them down to their tiny details. And though one can win an occasional hand, there is nothing else to do but play more. It's addictive for one thing, and for another, it's the only game in town. So we play, but the statistics are merciless; play enough hands and everyone, no matter how lucky, loses on the long haul. Refuse to play and get stripped of everything you own and thrown out in the desert sun. There is nothing out there.
I know, the Vegas Theology is pretty bleak. It's very bleak! But I don't want to leave you with no hope. The whole of the Vegas Theology is not a theology of despair. For there is this:
Sometimes, if you bet often enough, and big enough, you get your drinks comped and a couple of free tickets to Cirque du Soleil.
Not bad.
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