You Gotta Have Hope!

"Lucky" Louie isn't really lucky. In fact, he's unlucky by most measures. In other words, if you find someone called "Lucky" at a shelter, you can rest assured he was tagged with that moniker by some sarcastic asshole (*cough*). Lottery tickets are the fools' gold of the hopeless. It's completely unbearable to the human mind to be buried alive so no matter how ridiculous, a rationale for hope must be found.

"Ah, I see you're a director. Jimmy our busboy is a director!" When the Kevin Bacon character in the satire "The Big Picture" is down on his luck and is forced to apply for a waiter's job, that quote is the owner's reaction after reading his application. It's a David Copperfield-in-the-factory nightmare that is endured by most lost souls. And, yes, Lucky Louie also yearns to be a director, a dream as far away as the ends of the universe (and I say that with the best of motives).

Most people want to reduce life to a science with nice convenient answers (which just goes to show anything can be turned into a religion). But a career in the arts is not the same as some slide rule engineering job. So with the double whammy of being an emotional cripple as well as not having the practice or technical skills to be a director, Louie is pretty much toast. To keep his mind from collapsing in on him he harbors lottery tickets - lottery tickets which he never checks!

"Don't look and you'll never see bad news!"

Louie certainly isn't alone in his lottery lust but he's taken it to a whole new level. Bitterly stung by continually losing he stopped checking to see if he had won or not - that way he still had hope through willful ignorance. Once he got the money he'd be free of doing "the labors of others" and be able to pursue his lost dreams. Of course, that overlooks his own internal obstacles he must overcome but with this hopeless fantasy lie Louie's in no danger of ever having to face or admit those inadequacies. He gets to keep his treasured role as hapless victim alive while still proclaiming to fight for his dreams.

I don't know why God had to throw the world to the devil. Life certainly is hard enough all by itself.

I bring this up because when you live in a world of pain one cannot long suppress one's true desires. And sure enough one of the usual suspects raided Louie's lottery stash and found that, yes, all 26 of them were losers (outside of one two dollar prize). As expected, Louie exploded at this news, angrily slinging accusations of sabotage and betrayal. But like I said, when there's so much pain around, the idea of popping someone's bubble is just too hard to resist. Welcome back to the world, Louie.

Of course, the real saboteurs and betrayers are the shameless cheerleaders of hope dope, giving sanction to addiction and a fierce attack on anyone who dare speak truth. "You can do it, Louie. Keep buying those tickets. Believe in yourself! You can buy the stairway to heaven." What fiendish devils they are, slyly slipping in their knives and daggers with a public smile and a private scowl. Assassins are everywhere, urging you on to your own personal Jonestown massacre while giving you their full and fanatical "support".

Then I heard a remark on TV about how politicians are in the business of peddling hope and I started connecting it all together. I found that terrifying assessment to be spot on. No matter how false or farfetched, hope dope is sold on a daily basis, Kool-Aid drinking by the gallon. I see purple Kool-Aid drinkers chastise green Kool-Aid drinkers who chastise yellow Kool-Aid drinkers. We all have our own piece of truth - and our own blind spots, the birthplace of all religions.

So what is your poison? Is your false hope in President Jesus? Or the false hope the right one will change us from being greedy? Or the false hope a greedy people have a future? Or the false of hope of not communicating with your mate? Or the false hope of you're just one scam away from hitting it big? Ah, the things we do for love! One thing is for certain, whatever lie it is you tell yourself - known or unknown - it will be used against you, ten times out of ten.