I learned I was going to Vegas about a month ago. To say I was unhappy would be the biggest understatement-- I was mad. Since who knows how long, I have hated Vegas. I tried to be optimistic about the trip, I really tried, but it was an uphill battle. When I packed, I focused on the fact that vacation was vacation, no matter where it was. But that's no consolation considering I was expecting a trip to Lake Tahoe. Instead, I was headed off to Las Vegas-- the hot, sticky, over-populated Sin City.
On the first night of our trip, I asked my grandparents if we could drive down the strip-- I wanted to see the lights I remembered from my trip there years ago. My grandparents, cousin, sister, and I piled into the car and drove away from the RV resort we were staying at and began our drive down the Strip. It was a lot less impressive than I remembered. Maybe it's the fact that I've grown up and the buildings aren't as big to me. There were still zillions of dazzling lights-- like I remembered-- but they weren't as amazing for some reason. It was almost overwhelming-- there was so much to look at-- yet underwhelming. I had been expecting to be blown away by the lights and buildings, but there was something nagging me at the back of my mind.
When I was little, it was easy to be impressed at the spectacle of the Strip. But now, at seventeen years old, I saw more... the darker side of the city full of lights, Sin City. It's as if my eyes were opened to a new aspect of the city.I saw advertisements for call girls posted on the enormous billboards. Inappropriate magazines sold shamelessly on the streets. Ads for recreational hypnotists. Ads for alcohol of all kinds. Excessive gambling. Girls walking down the Strip in bikini tops and flirting with strange men. People staggering while clutching their bottles of booze. Billboards lined the highways, boasting of topless bars and all sorts of debauchery. Maybe I'm just naive, but I never expected to see nearly nude women on the largest billboards in the city. Then again, I should have expected something like that because it is, after all, Sin City.
As we drove down the Strip, I prayed. Most of the time, I couldn't find the words to pray. As strange as it sounds, I felt my spirit aching and crying for the lost people of Vegas. I constantly felt like I was trying to speak telepathically to passersby: Put down your beer bottle and walk straight... Girls, respect yourselves... I just wanted so desperately to see an end to what went on in the night.
We got back to the RV after our drive and I couldn't sleep; I felt sick to my stomach. Thoughts milled through my mind... How did Vegas become the mecca for pilgrims of perversion? What is it about Vegas that allows people to lose any sense of good judgment or morals?The answer: Safety in numbers. In Vegas, you can act like a chameleon, and blend into the background. No one will notice you if you do something everyone else is doing. There's no shame in Vegas because no one notices you. No one is going to point out the speck in someone's eye because everyone else has a plank in their own.
There's something fascinating (and disturbing) about this "mob mentality" or, as some call it, the "majority opinion" (which sounds a bit nicer, don't you agree?). In his book The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury brings to light some important thoughts and questions regarding the majority :
“I hate this feeling of thinking I’m doing right when I’m not really certain I am. Who are we, anyway? The majority? Is that the answer? The majority is always holy, is it not? Always, always; just never wrong for one little insignificant tiny moment, is it? ...What is this majority and who are in it? And what do they think and how did they get that way and will they ever change…? I don’t feel comfortable [as a part of the majority]. Is it claustrophobia, fear of crowds, or common sense? Can one man be right, while all the world thinks they are right?”
What if the mob mentality wasn't negative? Why can't the "minority" step forward and prove the majority wrong for the sake of morality? Again, Bradbury captures the essence of this issue:“[T]here was always a minority afraid of something, and a great majority afraid of the dark, afraid of the future, afraid of the past, afraid of the present, afraid of themselves and shadows of themselves.”
My question, now, is this: What is the minority afraid of? In Las Vegas, the minority is the people who know that any sin is a sin against God and shouldn't be taken lightly. What could the reason for not confronting the problem? Is it intimidation? If that's the problem, the "minority" should realize: God is on their side. Why should they be afraid?Romans 8:31 "If God is for us, no one can defeat us."
This was Fantastic!
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