America was founded on and grew by celebrating risk. Western Europe had immersed ideology in the “wheel of fortune,” only mitigated by the idea that earthly life was simply a temporary test leading to an eternal jackpot. Luck gave good and ill indiscriminately, God dispensed favors via an ineffable plan of his own. Anyone riding high today might suddenly be cast down tomorrow.
The wheel of fortune, like death, is a great leveler. Those who are up may be down tomorrow, and vice versa. And it is strangely comforting that this happens despite one’s plans and efforts. Calvinism achieved the same goal with its view of predestination, as we merely play at what has been ordained in heaven.
But, of course, our current mythology left all that behind with the coming of industrialization. Now, we believe, risk is ever present and _ if well planned and executed _ inevitably leads to social gains. Even individual failure is merely training for the next attempt. Luck plays only a transient short-term role and we deserve whatever we make of it.
Except _ well _ it’s just another mythology. Plenty of people remain trapped on the wheel of fortune, or subject to heaven’s whim. This is now the great divide in outlook between the rich and poor. And an even greater divide between the brazen promoters and those “sheep” just trying to live a decent life.
But that wheel still turns.
HuntingtonHarborThoughts 