Hoffer - Jackpot Nation

It takes no great social historian to explain the American

I had never noticed the potential for treachery in an

Religious doctrine has always been fairly consistent in its opposition

The wind blows pretty cold and pretty strong off Lake

The countryside is pretty enough, somewhat rolling, the Blue Ridge

Topping San Marcos Pass, coming from the California coastline near

I knew at some point, and at some place, Id

His voice originated somewhere in Costa Rica, hooked into a

It takes no great social historian to explain the American tendency toward risk-reward schemes, both dubious and legitimate. This country, as far as that goes, was founded on a flier. And every possible advancement in knowledge and wealth has been occasioned by some fantastic bet. We were always, just by virtue of our pioneer origins, in the game of speculation. Gold Rush, anybody? Or just a hundred shares of Pet.com? By now, through a couple hundred years of just this kind of political and economic evolution, we have been so thoroughly self-selected for risk-taking that only a righteous few of us can avoid scanning lifes tote board first thing in the morning.

Good thing, when it comes to settling a nation or jetting off to the moon. Or even starting up Yahoo! Or asking that girl, too smart and too pretty for the likes of us, to marry us. Hard to imagine where this country would be if our ambition were restricted to sure shots, if we werent careless enough in our greed to ignore long odds. I guess wed still be in England and nobody would have iPods. Also, there would be a lot of bachelors. But what happens when this native predisposition toward risk-takingnow encouraged by civic institutions, a travel industry, a technology boom, a yawning void of recreation, a collapse in that old-time religionbecomes so pervasive that nearly every aspect of our culture is now a function of chance?

Well, I was curious. So, with little more than my own personal treasure map (I can see where more judgmental minds might call it Satans TripTikbut not me) and cash advance access on four credit cards, I embarked on my own little road to ruin, exploring our landscape of luck. I didnt set out to participatealthough there I was, spinning for sausages in St. Paul and waiting for the river in Salt Lake City (and yes, I did max out those cards, but thats another story) and standing in the Caesars Palace sports book holding a paper sack filled with $100,000 (and thats really another story)but to investigate, to discover where and how we flex that muscle, which you might have thought vestigial by now, certainly flabby. Turns out theres a humming and thrumming economy out there, never mind our government, totally invested in its exercise.

You think this is Fast Food Nation? We Americans bet each other about $80 billion last year, more than we spent on movie tickets, CDs, theme parks, spectator sports, and video gamescombined! Its more than we spent on higher education (and only a little bit less than we spent on fast food, which has the advantage of a drive-thru; the day you can take Phoenix and give six at a curbside clown, that advantage will certainly be eliminated). And, due to a confluence of trends that make it easier and ever more acceptable to gamble, we will increase that action year by year until the daily double really is more important to our economy than a double-double already is. It is impossible to know what limits there might be to such growth when our lottery libido is unleashed by civic and moral approval, not to mention Internet access. Whatever taboos there might have once been (our riverboat mentality was, for most of our history, held somewhat in check by the reigning values of hard work and self-sacrifice and Protestant morality) have fallen at such a pace that a backroom activity has become a parlor game.

But why wouldnt this country be devoted to the pursuit of luck? Like I say, the timid were left behind when the May flower sailed, the resulting start-up population already inclined toward overconfidence, a belief in destiny. But, really, what did we ever find here to discourage our sense of entitlement? Ever since we arrived, and once we relieved the Indians of their management (again, another story), its been one windfall after another. No wonder good luck has come to seem our rightful condition. The abundance, however accidental (kind of a definition of luck), has been simply stupefying.

Its been Jackpot Nation from day one, as weve stumbled from gold strike to gusher. American history is a timeline of providence, an epoch of flabbergasting discovery. Mother lodes, wide-open prairies, vast buffalo herds, timberland: Who among our adventuring forebears ever set out to chart this wilderness and was disappointed? Who took a chance and crapped out?

This is surely our rightful condition. The idea of a payoff, whereby some small amount of industry gets applied to any crazy notion and returns investments in wild multiples, has come to seem a constitutional right. The original groundwork for such national confidence was purely a product of our natural resources. But as these were explored and exhausted, our native wit became an equally valuable source of capital. We were as good at developing things as at stumbling upon them. Maybe it was the miracle of (mostly) economic democracy, but smarts became highly incentivized. In this country anyway, it was ridiculously easy to parlay ideas into wealth and power. Maybe nobodys come up with a better mousetrap, but theres been no end to the refinement of gadgetry to enrich our livesor at least its inventor.

Its been a get-rich-quick country from day one, everybodys life animated by the certainty of opportunity. We very well could discover gold, but failing that (say we prefer indoor work), we might improve our lot marketing vitamins or dabbling in foreclosures. Basically, its there for the taking.

Its been the work of religion (and, once upon a time, our government) to deny, or at least counter the element of luck, which, after all, would dampen the instinct toward holy striving. Something for nothing never squared with our Puritan origins, even though the team logo back then was a cornucopia. But to deny this continued good fortune, to ignore American serendipity, is another kind of arrogance, too. Do we really deserve what we get? Have we really earned all that we have?

Surely there is another part of us that understands, as smart as we are and as hard as we work, weve cashed a ticket just by being American. And if you dont appreciate that fact, take your Subway franchise to Darfur. Let me know how your expansion plans work out.

To be an American is to be emboldened by our long run of luck, to be ready for every opportunity, to ante up as soon as the cards are shuffled. This has made for a pretty exciting nation, with a lot of entertaining foolishness, of course. Weve also enjoyed a lot more progress than less adventuresome countries. Hands up, who else has the right to vote and has video-on-demand?

But to be an American these days, now that all the really good adventures have been achieved, has meant a gradual retreat into the safety of choice. Its no longer necessary to load the kids into a covered wagon and head West, fighting Indians along the way, to get ahead. Far easier just to take on a little overtime, or buy rental properties. Still, that appetite for risk remains and its up to us to satisfy it within the confines of our twenty-first-century comfort. Granted, we no longer face the somewhat daunting prospect of being scalped, but we still need the make-believe of mastery, which is why we have paintball, infomercial get-rich schemes, and all these other arenas of simulated survival.