Theory 19: Frankenstein’s Burden or Beer and No Clothing in Las Vegas
The best Book of Mark theories flow seamlessly from paragraph to paragraph until the new theory inevitably arrives in a puff of what has the distinct appearance of logic.
Sadly, this is not one of those theories.
This week I will be jumping all over the place from tangent to tangent, and then I will try to miraculously pull it together as one coherent point in the end. What’s worse - this is my "green theory". I am assuming that some people might find this annoying. Let me know what you think.
Tangent #1: Las Vegas
I am standing in a popular and ridiculous night club in the former desert of Las Vegas. Full of liquor and deep in thought, I am amazed as usual at the lavishness of Las Vegas, the hordes of beautiful people and the mystical paradox of human accomplishment and shallowness.
A tall person walks by and my mind wanders to Frankenstein, and just like that, standing drunk at 4:00 in the morning, I finally have a handle on elusive Theory 19. How fitting.
I owe a lot to Las Vegas. After all, I may not believe in God, karma, or that everything happens for a reason, but I am still a reasonably spiritual person who needs my fix for transcendental journeys of the soul.
Muslims perform the Hajj; Buddhists travel to Bodh Gaya or several other places; Devout Christians travel to the Way of St. James in Spain; Less devout or "half-assed Christians" travel once a year to Church on Christmas Day after they are made to feel guilty by the Charlie Brown Xmas special. I don’t feel that I have those options, so I go to what I consider to be the most spiritual place in the world: Las Vegas.
I don’t mean to insult anyone with that rather reckless comparison. To the untrained eye, Las Vegas may appear to be nothing more than a blended frozen cocktail of neon, fake breasts, gaudy carpets and underappreciated money. This view is both short sighted and unimaginative. Las Vegas is more than just a vacation destination for people who like to cheat on their spouses and contradict their thinly woven moral codes. It is a microcosm of the strengths and flaws of our very species, and these observations are key to Theory 19.
Tangent #2: Frankenstein: It’s alive.
Although most of us remember the Frankenstein story from its many brilliant adaptations as part of the classic Hammer Horror Film Productions, the truth is that it originated from the wordy, preachy but also brilliant Mary Shelley novel. (Note - that is an especially funny link.) Ms. Shelley was not a big fan of the industrial revolution and was trying to warn of the dangers of human progress. It was a story of man trying to accomplish more than it should, and having to live with the violent and frightening results. Ms. Shelley may not have stopped the revolution, but if she were alive today (a movie Hammer should consider) she would have little trouble spotting how increasingly relevant her science fiction has become.
Tangent #3: The Evolution Paradox
Let me start by saying that I have always been and remain a big fan of human freedom (including capitalism) and the human evolution that results from it. Leaving humanity unfettered is the key to its growth. I seem to recall I may have made this point before. However, we need to take a realistic view of this. The truth is that human growth, progress and evolution often comes at such a breakneck pace that it causes terminal and devastating side effects. (For more on this I recommend Ronald Wright’s fantastic 2004 book A Short History of Progress which is available free online right here.)
Back in the 50's and 60's we got an unprecedented taste of the inherent danger of "not recognizing our own strength". Children grew up in the shadow of a potential nuclear war. This was probably the first generation to grow up understanding just how much of an impact we can have on our own planet - if we get ourselves worked up enough we can completely destroy it. So what have we, the post-nuclear generation, collectively learned? For one thing, we have learned that there is more than one way to skin a planet.
Amidst the genius of insulin, the Internet, micro-loans and a million other things, we are living (almost literally) on the hot seat with the threat of a new ice age (arguably self-made). It is nice to see global warming getting some press (has anyone ever used the term "scorched earth" literally . .) but it is not our only serious problem. I am putting my money on mass extinctions as the next hot button issue. Ultimately it is difficult to argue with the fact that human evolution and progress, the concept I still stand by and adore, is gradually depleting all of the natural resources that we rely on for life, security and 21st century convenience. (On a personal note, as a scuba diver, cyanide fishing of coral reefs and the fact that fish in the middle of the ocean are full of mercury are two things that I have never been able to get my head around).
How do we reconcile this? How do we manage the complex relationship between our growth and the question of whether or not we can manage it? Well, if you ask me, it all starts by taking the Frankenstein monster and putting him on a plane to Vegas.
Tangent #4: Putting the Frankenstein monster on a plane to Vegas.
The business plan for Las Vegas, wherein everyone can have free liquor, cheap food and the freedom to do WHATEVER they want, shows a tremendously insightful and pessimistic understanding of the human spirit. Most people focus on the freedoms that Las Vegas provides, but the far more interesting part is that all this is provided with a reasonable expectation of profit. Give people whatever they want and they will hand their money over willingly. It is that simple. Most of us live in a world of stifling routines and constant boundaries. Days blend together and disappear. We don’t give much thought to what we would do if we were completely free to do whatever we wanted. So we go to Las Vegas where it injects excess and decadence directly into our senses. Then it sits back and lets us do anything we want. Anything. Many a free man will make poor choices.
This point has always deeply attracted me to Las Vegas. Is there any bigger insult than being told you can do whatever you want by someone or something that is assuming you are going to screw it up? I have spent hundreds of hours learning how to count cards, as well as reading many books on poker, in a desperate attempt to prove Vegas wrong and show that I can beat the system, walk the edge, have my fun, and still not be a victim. Playing Las Vegas perfectly requires a delicate balance of greed, excess and restraint. Sometimes I have proved them wrong, and sometimes I haven’t, but it is always on hell of battle. Over the years I have seen a list of people make some pretty horrible choices in Vegas. We talk as though Vegas is to blame, but it isn’t. Vegas is just providing the ultimate forum for us to be ourselves. I go to Las Vegas to stand at the edge of myself and let go. Then I wake up, brush myself off, and disappear back into my routines like everyone else, but I am richer for the experience (metaphorically speaking if not literally).
In many ways, Las Vegas is a modern day Frankenstein’s monster. I stood in the club at 4:00 in the morning and marvelled how it ever came to be that humanity transformed a desert into this ridiculour power-sucking Roman orgy. You have to appreciate the human achievement, but you also have to fear it. There is danger in letting this many coiled up people break out of their routines, free to let their natural urges collide with one another.
Las Vegas, more than anywhere on the planet, hosts humanity’s all-important battle with itself. Reserved people lose all control, cheap people lose all of their money in a blink of eye, married people lose their spouses, etc. Otherwise progressive and evolved people come face to face with their caveman nature and make choices. Las Vegas encourages them too. It promises that what happens in Vegas will stay there, so it is OK to loosen yourself from social boundaries and be free. One by one, in a world with no rules or boundaries, we all draw our own lines, exercise our own restraint and determine who we really are.
Tangent #5: Passing the almighty buck:
Most people blame governments and big business for many of today’s problems. I have problems with this. Ultimately, big businesses spend millions of dollars trying to find what we want them to sell us. Governments (even the crooked ones) are ultimately responding to the demands of their people (in very different ways and for a host of different motives).
Human growth (as a whole) is a product of human demand. Each one of us are collectively responsible for what we demand from governments, our restaurants and our malls. We want cheaper widgets and more powerful cars. We want better food produced at an industrial pace. I certainly want these things, and I could go on and on.
Theory 19: Miraculously pulling it all together
If human demand is driving growth, than it is human demand that also must evolve. We are no longer living in a bottomless world and we all have to show some measure of restraint. I will be the first to admit that I refuse to accept Ms. Shelley’s warning: I want to create life; I want to progress; I want cooler gadgets and amazing technological change. I do not want to hold humanity back out of fear, though I will admit to being a little scared.
So I give you Theory 19: The only way we survive our own ambition and greed is to accept the burden that Dr. Frankenstein did not: We have to see our monsters for what they are and recognize how much power we truly have. Our boundaries are gone - we’ve outgrown them as a species. We can do anything now, and the planet is at our mercy. We are a drunken species on one hell of a bender in somewhere in the soul of Las Vegas. It is up to us to draw our own individual lines in the sand. One by one, each and every person must accept the importance of our individual choices, because together they move the species as a collective whole.
Tangent 6: Frankenstein’s other burden
It is of course the result of a common misconception that Frankenstein is a name synonymous with the monster and not with the Doctor. I suppose Doctor Frankenstein would have found some irony in this - the genius of his achievements are forgotten or ignored - all that matters is the monster that he created.
I just spent the better part of this theory casting our species as Dr. Frankenstein. What are the odds that we suffer the same lesson?
I would wager that Vegas has a line on that somewhere.
Sadly, this is not one of those theories.
This week I will be jumping all over the place from tangent to tangent, and then I will try to miraculously pull it together as one coherent point in the end. What’s worse - this is my "green theory". I am assuming that some people might find this annoying. Let me know what you think.
Tangent #1: Las Vegas
I am standing in a popular and ridiculous night club in the former desert of Las Vegas. Full of liquor and deep in thought, I am amazed as usual at the lavishness of Las Vegas, the hordes of beautiful people and the mystical paradox of human accomplishment and shallowness.
A tall person walks by and my mind wanders to Frankenstein, and just like that, standing drunk at 4:00 in the morning, I finally have a handle on elusive Theory 19. How fitting.
I owe a lot to Las Vegas. After all, I may not believe in God, karma, or that everything happens for a reason, but I am still a reasonably spiritual person who needs my fix for transcendental journeys of the soul.
Muslims perform the Hajj; Buddhists travel to Bodh Gaya or several other places; Devout Christians travel to the Way of St. James in Spain; Less devout or "half-assed Christians" travel once a year to Church on Christmas Day after they are made to feel guilty by the Charlie Brown Xmas special. I don’t feel that I have those options, so I go to what I consider to be the most spiritual place in the world: Las Vegas.
I don’t mean to insult anyone with that rather reckless comparison. To the untrained eye, Las Vegas may appear to be nothing more than a blended frozen cocktail of neon, fake breasts, gaudy carpets and underappreciated money. This view is both short sighted and unimaginative. Las Vegas is more than just a vacation destination for people who like to cheat on their spouses and contradict their thinly woven moral codes. It is a microcosm of the strengths and flaws of our very species, and these observations are key to Theory 19.
Tangent #2: Frankenstein: It’s alive.
Although most of us remember the Frankenstein story from its many brilliant adaptations as part of the classic Hammer Horror Film Productions, the truth is that it originated from the wordy, preachy but also brilliant Mary Shelley novel. (Note - that is an especially funny link.) Ms. Shelley was not a big fan of the industrial revolution and was trying to warn of the dangers of human progress. It was a story of man trying to accomplish more than it should, and having to live with the violent and frightening results. Ms. Shelley may not have stopped the revolution, but if she were alive today (a movie Hammer should consider) she would have little trouble spotting how increasingly relevant her science fiction has become.
Tangent #3: The Evolution Paradox
Let me start by saying that I have always been and remain a big fan of human freedom (including capitalism) and the human evolution that results from it. Leaving humanity unfettered is the key to its growth. I seem to recall I may have made this point before. However, we need to take a realistic view of this. The truth is that human growth, progress and evolution often comes at such a breakneck pace that it causes terminal and devastating side effects. (For more on this I recommend Ronald Wright’s fantastic 2004 book A Short History of Progress which is available free online right here.)
Back in the 50's and 60's we got an unprecedented taste of the inherent danger of "not recognizing our own strength". Children grew up in the shadow of a potential nuclear war. This was probably the first generation to grow up understanding just how much of an impact we can have on our own planet - if we get ourselves worked up enough we can completely destroy it. So what have we, the post-nuclear generation, collectively learned? For one thing, we have learned that there is more than one way to skin a planet.
Amidst the genius of insulin, the Internet, micro-loans and a million other things, we are living (almost literally) on the hot seat with the threat of a new ice age (arguably self-made). It is nice to see global warming getting some press (has anyone ever used the term "scorched earth" literally . .) but it is not our only serious problem. I am putting my money on mass extinctions as the next hot button issue. Ultimately it is difficult to argue with the fact that human evolution and progress, the concept I still stand by and adore, is gradually depleting all of the natural resources that we rely on for life, security and 21st century convenience. (On a personal note, as a scuba diver, cyanide fishing of coral reefs and the fact that fish in the middle of the ocean are full of mercury are two things that I have never been able to get my head around).
How do we reconcile this? How do we manage the complex relationship between our growth and the question of whether or not we can manage it? Well, if you ask me, it all starts by taking the Frankenstein monster and putting him on a plane to Vegas.
Tangent #4: Putting the Frankenstein monster on a plane to Vegas.
The business plan for Las Vegas, wherein everyone can have free liquor, cheap food and the freedom to do WHATEVER they want, shows a tremendously insightful and pessimistic understanding of the human spirit. Most people focus on the freedoms that Las Vegas provides, but the far more interesting part is that all this is provided with a reasonable expectation of profit. Give people whatever they want and they will hand their money over willingly. It is that simple. Most of us live in a world of stifling routines and constant boundaries. Days blend together and disappear. We don’t give much thought to what we would do if we were completely free to do whatever we wanted. So we go to Las Vegas where it injects excess and decadence directly into our senses. Then it sits back and lets us do anything we want. Anything. Many a free man will make poor choices.
This point has always deeply attracted me to Las Vegas. Is there any bigger insult than being told you can do whatever you want by someone or something that is assuming you are going to screw it up? I have spent hundreds of hours learning how to count cards, as well as reading many books on poker, in a desperate attempt to prove Vegas wrong and show that I can beat the system, walk the edge, have my fun, and still not be a victim. Playing Las Vegas perfectly requires a delicate balance of greed, excess and restraint. Sometimes I have proved them wrong, and sometimes I haven’t, but it is always on hell of battle. Over the years I have seen a list of people make some pretty horrible choices in Vegas. We talk as though Vegas is to blame, but it isn’t. Vegas is just providing the ultimate forum for us to be ourselves. I go to Las Vegas to stand at the edge of myself and let go. Then I wake up, brush myself off, and disappear back into my routines like everyone else, but I am richer for the experience (metaphorically speaking if not literally).
In many ways, Las Vegas is a modern day Frankenstein’s monster. I stood in the club at 4:00 in the morning and marvelled how it ever came to be that humanity transformed a desert into this ridiculour power-sucking Roman orgy. You have to appreciate the human achievement, but you also have to fear it. There is danger in letting this many coiled up people break out of their routines, free to let their natural urges collide with one another.
Las Vegas, more than anywhere on the planet, hosts humanity’s all-important battle with itself. Reserved people lose all control, cheap people lose all of their money in a blink of eye, married people lose their spouses, etc. Otherwise progressive and evolved people come face to face with their caveman nature and make choices. Las Vegas encourages them too. It promises that what happens in Vegas will stay there, so it is OK to loosen yourself from social boundaries and be free. One by one, in a world with no rules or boundaries, we all draw our own lines, exercise our own restraint and determine who we really are.
Tangent #5: Passing the almighty buck:
Most people blame governments and big business for many of today’s problems. I have problems with this. Ultimately, big businesses spend millions of dollars trying to find what we want them to sell us. Governments (even the crooked ones) are ultimately responding to the demands of their people (in very different ways and for a host of different motives).
Human growth (as a whole) is a product of human demand. Each one of us are collectively responsible for what we demand from governments, our restaurants and our malls. We want cheaper widgets and more powerful cars. We want better food produced at an industrial pace. I certainly want these things, and I could go on and on.
Theory 19: Miraculously pulling it all together
If human demand is driving growth, than it is human demand that also must evolve. We are no longer living in a bottomless world and we all have to show some measure of restraint. I will be the first to admit that I refuse to accept Ms. Shelley’s warning: I want to create life; I want to progress; I want cooler gadgets and amazing technological change. I do not want to hold humanity back out of fear, though I will admit to being a little scared.
So I give you Theory 19: The only way we survive our own ambition and greed is to accept the burden that Dr. Frankenstein did not: We have to see our monsters for what they are and recognize how much power we truly have. Our boundaries are gone - we’ve outgrown them as a species. We can do anything now, and the planet is at our mercy. We are a drunken species on one hell of a bender in somewhere in the soul of Las Vegas. It is up to us to draw our own individual lines in the sand. One by one, each and every person must accept the importance of our individual choices, because together they move the species as a collective whole.
Tangent 6: Frankenstein’s other burden
It is of course the result of a common misconception that Frankenstein is a name synonymous with the monster and not with the Doctor. I suppose Doctor Frankenstein would have found some irony in this - the genius of his achievements are forgotten or ignored - all that matters is the monster that he created.
I just spent the better part of this theory casting our species as Dr. Frankenstein. What are the odds that we suffer the same lesson?
I would wager that Vegas has a line on that somewhere.
posted by Mark at 9:54 PM
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