by John Garvey
The authorities and the media sometimes seem more annoyed and frustrated at Stephen Paddock because they can’t figure out why he did it than they are about him killing 58 people and wounding hundreds.ย More precisely, they are annoyed and frustrated because they canโt come up with a story about why he did it that will make sense to their various audiences.ย All of that is an exercise in evasion.
I think that the reason he did it is quite clear–Las Vegas made him do it.ย Having only been there once, I’m not sure that I’m right that’s it’s the most alienating place in America.ย But itโs certainly right up there. The fact of the matter is that they advertise it as such:
Whether youโre a group of bachelors seeking a little debauchery or a high roller taking a change, this city has earned the slogan, โwhat happens in Vegas stays in Vegasโ for a damn good reason. Las Vegas has something to suit every decadenceโbe it abundant buffets, flowing liquor, world-class entertainment, all night poker games, the razzle-dazzle of a fancy hotel on the Vegas Strip, the kitsch of Fremont Street, a heated swim up pool bar, or a luxurious spaโthere are no rules (well, barely) in Las Vegas.
The other place in the running is Disney World in Orlando.ย Even one of the cable talking heads observed that there could be some significance to the fact that the two worst shootings have happened in Orlando and Vegas.ย Nevertheless, millions of people flock to the two places every yearโ42 million to Las Vegas and 68 million to Orlando in 2016.ย And one-third of the 51 million visitors to Disney World in recent years are adults without children.
What are they finding when they get there and what are they leaving behind?ย Maybe the catchy slogan should not be: โWhat happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!โ but: “What happens at home stays at home!โย Except that you canโt really escape whatโs happening at home and you are not likely to find much worth finding in Vegas.
Paddock apparently spent more than twenty years playing the most alienating game in the casinos–video poker.ย Hours and hours, days and days; hand after hand.ย Here’s a description:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/04/us/stephen-paddock-gambling.html
Makes life on an old auto assembly line sound interesting and rewarding.
It’s also worth noting that Las Vegas scores right at the top of the suicide and homicide rankings.ย Here’s a story from some time ago but my guess is that it’s still accurate:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98042717
But, at the end, I’d suggest that it’s not really Las Vegas–it is, in fact, our old friend money.ย Money made Paddock what he was and then it made him what he did.ย Here’s an early excerpt from Marx on โThe Power of Moneyโ:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/power.htm
In closing, I’d argue that it’s not guns; itโs not individual anxiety; it’s not valium or some other drug or marital misery; itโs not any of the things that theyโre hoping to come up with. All may play a part in each miserable story.ย But, at bottom, it’s capitalism and its collapsing civilization that are the causes of the slaughtersโthe everyday ones that mostly escape notice and the spectacular ones that dominate the headlines and the airwaves.ย Paddock’s actions are both consequence and evidence of that collapsing civilization.
John Garvey’s typical Leftist broadside of blaming-everything-bad-or-horrific-on-capitalism and it’s “collapsing civilizationโ is not worth much. General indictments of capitalism from the strategically impoverished Left are about as sad as, and often mimic for whatever Leftish audience that may exist, the entertainment capital conjures up (with spectator sports leading the way). Garveyโs recent comment is directed at Stephen Paddockโs massing killing in Las Vegas and dismisses any use in figuringg out Paddockโs motivation. Just blame it on capitalism and move on to the next issue of Hard Crackers while you wait for the โexplosionโ HC promises.
Well, yes, it was โthe power of moneyโ that Garveyโs lambasts at the root of Paddockโs evil. Specifically, though, it was Paddockโs huge casino debts that probably fueled his desire to give Las Vegas and the gambling โindustryโ the biggest black eye he was capable of perpetrating. Itโs the only explanation that makes any senseโand officialdomโs silence on the issue of gambling debt, addiction or lack thereof is a good indication that gambling addiction debt provided Paddockโs thinking-man motivation to keep people from frequenting Las Vegas. In a 2013 deposition transcript located by journalists, not by the FBI, Paddock admitted to gambling as much as a million dollars in a single gambling session. If he bet at a high level, he most likely lost at a high level and lost everything he had worked decades to accumulate as an accountant, a good-paying but mega-boring job. When the casinos (which had โcompedโ him to living quarters at casino hotelsโanother indication of high level betting and debt), cut off his credit, the casinos denied Paddock his addictionโs ultimate next fix: a chance to win his money back. What better revenge, having lost everything and now way to recover, than to turn the Strip into a bloodbath?
If the FBI inquired with casinos about Paddockโs debts, odds are the casinos declined to disclose them citing the holy grail of financial privacy. When the Las Vegas FBI agents contacted their boss, Jeff Sessions, about whether to use more coercive legal tactics to obtain Paddockโs debt information from the casinos, Sessions probably asked Jared Kushner about what to do. Knowing full well the Nevada regionโs economic lifeblood hinges on gamblingโincluding Trump properties located thereโKushner put the kibosh on anything that might tarnish his father-in-lawโs money machines and those of his friends in the wager โindustry.โ Nevada officialdom, who feed at the gambling trough, are most pleased to see the corporate media spotlight remain on guns, gun stocks, and high-capacity magazines rather than on gambling addiction.
There are over legalized 1,500 gaming properties of one kind or another in the U.S. Might there be an action strategy for the Left that targets gambling addiction emporiums? You can bet on it.
Hit a nerve, obviously. The truth usually does.