Cultural Deterioration

Assuming, for the moment, that there really was a guy named Charles Darwin who really wrote a book called Origin of the Species, and assuming further that I read it, our species evolved from the mindless apes into the sapient creatures who now dominate the planet. Our tactical advantages were our voice boxes and our thumbs -- we could co-ordinate our activity through language and we could hold solid objects in our hands, turning rocks and sticks into lethal weapons.

Untold thousands of years passed as humanity learned to read and write, allowing us to accumulate knowledge, further widening our tactical advantage over other life forms. The accumulated knowledge led humanity to form permanent cities and “countries.”

Within the various countries or nations, culture developed, including rules for keeping order, and speculation about metaphysical questions about good and evil, life and death, right and wrong.

As the centuries have rolled on, and our proclivity for cooperation enabled technological advances that made life less dangerous and more comfortable. We also developed ethics and religion which came to define different and often conflicting “societies."

By the time baby boomers showed up in the USA, there was a distinct culture, infused with a firm set of ethical standards, starting with the Ten Commandments and including many sexual taboos, like homosexuality or promiscuity. There was also a strong strand of capitalistic mores – including “the Puritan Work Ethic.” Our culture enacted laws to enforce these religious taboos and the social stigma against disfavored traits like homosexuality or socialism was indignant and ubiquitous.

When I grew up in Dallas, the prejudice against gay sex was a daily grind. We did not know what we were talking about as we accused each other of signing our names on milk cartons or having 360 degree mouths, but the fear and loathing was palpable.

Regarding the work ethic of the era – it grew out of capitalism. Gambling was illegal and seriously condemned by most of the folks as an irresponsible waste of money that should go to food for your family. It was an implicit condemnation of the idea of getting something for nothing.

The goal of getting something for nothing is now considered to be normal and fun. You can now bet on literally anything with an uncertain outcome. Who will make the first home run in a baseball game? Prediction market.

When you punch a clock and go to work, you contribute to the gross national product. When you lose a bet, you hand money over to Capitalism. When you win, Capitalism hands you some money, but nothing else happens to the national economy.

I remember the moms of my friends being shocked when I would casually mention that my father patronized a bookie. My Dad’s bookie buddy owned a small bar, and in those days before RICO, prosecutors needed five defendants to prove up a case of organized crime – like keeping a sports book. To round out their case, the Feds nailed one of the waitresses at the bookie’s bar for committing the crime of holding a gambler’s winnings for an hour before he got to the bar to pick up his winnings. She got 5 years for that.

Today, we live in a Gambling Culture. Personally, I don’t think gambling should be illegal. But I think vig should be a prison time crime.

But the old time huffiness against gambling reflected a legitimate ethical point – gambling is a zero sum game by definition. It adds nothing to the GDP. A culture that celebrates money for nothing and your chicks for free will produce the Trump Administration.

Ps if you don’t know what vig means, you are lucky