Angels around the Tables

"What I love about gambling is this idiotic life of luxury and poverty."

―Jeanne Moreau in "Bay of Angels" (Jacques Demy, 1963)

"Let it come. Let it go. Because the kind of secret that the elites know is that money is bullshit, and only by knowing that money is bullshit can you accumulate a lot of it, which should be your goal."

―Lana Swartz, assistant professor of media studies at the University of Virginia, describes the subreddit's financial spin on the kind of nihilism seen on 4chan as the idea that its users should have a "relaxed" relationship with their money

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Dear Kate,

Everything you've ever worked for, have your ever thought one day it might be lost, all of it, in one hand of roulette?

Unthinkable, right?  I am sure you are not the kind to do something like that, whatever the "hand of roulette" might be.

But what if there is no reason to hold on to your hand?

What is your reason to hold it now anyway?  To retire comfortably?  What if you see retirement as a premature death, an inevitable end you can't bet against but for while life lasts and action continues could short-sell?

You've probably heard about the "Reddit army that's crushing Wall Street," and if not, here's a primer.  At the core of it all are the quotes I posted today.

Money is bullshit when life is bullshit.  What's there to look forward to but highs and lows, when life is moment-by-moment meaningless and at long last nullified?

Think of our life as an investment, a stock of a "going concern" we've always been cultivating its growth prospect, wishing and planning for its best that is, we believe, yet to come.  But what if our best is already behind us: our health, creativity, sense of wonder, days of playful meandering, nights of romantic reverie, most memorable achievements, passionate relationships?  Why not concede your defeat, let go of your hand, and test yourself--just once more, to see if you can come alive again by sunrise tomorrow, give yourself another non-reason to keep your concerns going?

There's value in pornography, or we wouldn't be addicted to so many sorts.  I wouldn't disagree that it is a sensible way to muzzle the beasts in us, avert the worst case scenario.  Some know they are acting in a porno and even proud of their roles, others got so used to the lurid colors all around they saw themselves only as occasional, recreational users, spectators of the ungodly display that they weren't really part of.  We have a name for the first sort, and Jesus the second.

Well, we've done well putting and keeping ourselves "together" in this massively disintegrated mass society.  So far.  Getting old will speak the penultimate truth about us.  Then dying.  Our money?  In the hands of our children, roulette tables everywhere they go.

Yours, Alex