CYCLE THIRTY-THREE

1. I have never gambled, not do I do the lottery. I dislike the concept of money as an end-in-itself, a goal to be achieved. When that becomes the case, as it does with the lottery, it is clear that economics has replaced religion, and man replaced God. Or, perhaps, 'excluded' would be a more fitting description? Whatever the case, it comes down to a sort of Protestant ethos of money worship, in which the financial jackpot of the lottery rainbow becomes synonymous, in a paradoxical sort of way, with salvation, salvation in and through a Son (Christ) Who can all-too-readily be identified with economic gain!

2. No, I don't like the lottery one little bit, since money is no substitute for genuine spirituality. Even the attention to numbers which the lottery entails is morally corrupting, numbers being closer, in their scientific origins, to the Devil than to God. But, then again, a people like the British have never been particularly moral anyway, so notions of 'moral corruption' are somehow beside-the-point where they are concerned.

3. The British motto is and has always been: No surrender! But to what, you might wonder? God, morality, truth, religion - call it by what name you like! No surrender ... to God! A fine motto indeed!