God, the Gift, and Postmodernism

9. Betting on Vegas

• Betting onVegas Mark C. Taylor So what's the deal? Why are so many people, corporations, institutions, even governments betting on Vegas? What's its draw? What's at stake? Las Vegas is the fastest growing city in the United States. The most popular retirement destination in the country, Vegas is home to eleven out of the twelve largest hotels in the world-and several bigger ones are being built at this very moment. From a western outpost of merely 4,500 settlers in 1945, to a city of one and a half million, this most unlikely oasis is a postwar phenomenon ofunprecedented proportions. Why was Vegas created? How is its explosive growth to be explained? What does this city in the desert tell us about our past, present, and future? 1won't delay or defer-at least not yet. No, I'll put my cards on the table: My wager is that you cannot understand America today unless you understand Las Vegas; and if you cannot understand America, you cannot comprehend contemporary culture and the future it opens and/or closes. Nothing seems more obvious, more straightforward, more superficial than Vegas. And yet, appearances are deceptive-always deceptive. To understand Vegas, if, indeed , Vegas can be understood, you must not be dazzled by neon and over229 • e ~n~g~~on Vegas Mark C. Taylor So what's the deal? Why are so tmlllY people, corporations, institutions, even governments betting on Vegas? What's its draw? Whafs at stake? L.1S Vegas is the fastest growing city inlhc United Stales.11le most popular retirement destination in the counlry, Vegas is home to eleven out of the twelve largest hotels in the world-and several bigger ones are being built at this vcry moment. From a western outpost of merely 4,500 settlers in 1945, to a city of one and a half million, this Illost unlikely oasis is a postwar phenoffi* ellon ofunprecedented proportions. Why was Vegas created? How is its explosive growth to be explained? What does this city in the desert tell us about our past, present, and future? I won't delay or defer-at least not yet. No, I'll put my cards on the table: My wager is that yOll cannot understand America today unless youlmderstand Las Vegas; and if yOli cannot understand America, you cannot comprehend contcmporary culture and the future it opcns and/or closes. Nothing seems morc obvious, morc straightforward, more superficial than Vegas. And yet, appearances are deceptive-always deceptive. To understand Vegas, if, indeed , Vegas can be understood, you must not bc dazzled by neon and over229 Mark C. Taylor whelmed by the din ofslots. Vegas is never what it seems; that's its draw, or one of its draws. It revels in the unlikely, the implausible, even the impossible. In the city where everything seems possible, what is (the) impossible? Perhaps religion. What, after all, is more implausible than religion in Las Vegas? There are, of course, countless chapels, chapels that look like fast-food drive-thrus. But these tasteless one-stop wedding chapels, where ministers, priests, and rabbis give way to members of the world-renowned "Flying Elvises," seem to be more a parody or even a denial ofreligious beliefs and rituals. Negation and affirmation, however, can never be completely separated. In ways that are not immediately obvious, Las Vegas is a religious phenomenon-perhaps one of the most important religious phenomena in the United States. Contrary to expectation, what begins in Puritan New England reaches to a certain closure in the hot yet verdant sands ofthe Nevada desert. Las Vegas is where the death of God is staged as the spectacle of the Kingdom of God on earth. The stakes of Vegas, therefore, are higher - considerably higher- than even the biggest tunas realize. Does all of this seem like an impossible bet? Do the cards seem stacked against such an implausible reading ofthe"city ofsin"? Is the spectacle before you a put-on-yet another gesture of tiresome postmodern irony under the guise ofexhausted academic respectability? Perhaps- perhaps not. After alland all ofthis is after all-what would it mean to be certain in a world that has given us Las Vegas? To trace the twists and turns of uncertainties that are growing as fast as Vegas, we must return to the source, or what once was considered the source, of civilization-the Nile-where we can explore pyramids that line its banks. Desert to desert, sand...