The Tyranny of Chance: Assis, Borges, and the Randomized Bargain

We've turned the basement into a casino! A man who turns to fortune-telling to assuage his conscience. A society that chooses its victims through a lottery. Does "mathematical fairness" absolve the citizens of Omelas, or does it simply creates a more sophisticated illusion of justice? Today it's the dark philosophy of Jorge Luis Borges’s "The Lottery in Babylon" and Machado de Assis’s "The Fortune-Teller." How do we use fate, destiny, and algorithms to justify systemic inequality and sacrifice, unsettling our modern reliance on "chance" to explain the suffering of others?   Episode 6.31 - Tyranny of Chance: Assis, Borges, and the Randomized Bargain Readings & Resources: Assis, Machado de. "The Fortune-Teller" ("A Cartomante"). Gazeta de Notícias, (1884).  [Waywords PDF] Borges, Jorge Luis. "The Lottery in Babylon" ("La lotería en Babilonia"), (1941). [Internet Archive PDF] Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963). Bataille, Georges. On Nietzsche, (1944). Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice, (1971). Some Key Terms from this episode: Capitalist Realism - The internalization of an exploitative system—such as Babylon's lethal lottery or modern economic structures—so completely that citizens cannot even imagine a viable alternative reality. Democratic Scapegoat - Definition: The process of sanitizing our guilt by mathematically equalizing the probability of suffering across everyone, masking deliberate, systemic violence as a fair game of chance. Will to Chance - Radical embrace of the absolute unknown that rejects utilitarian exchange, according to Bataille. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions When you encounter a story of someone else's "luck," does your mind look for a pattern of justice, or does it shrug at a meaningless universe? How does the process of "outsourcing" a decision to an algorithm or a coin toss change the physical sensation of responsibility in your body? In what ways does the concept of "equal opportunity" prevent us from seeing any actual human extraction suffered? If the suffering of a victim is determined by a "bad draw," does that change the moral outrage to demand a change in the system? What parts of your own daily "certainties" are actually just "bullseyes" you’ve painted around the random bullet holes of your experience? Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/ CHAPTERS 00:00     Games of Chance 03:01     Intro Theme 03:36     Borges, Assis, Le Guin 07:45     The Failure of Reason: "The Fortune Teller" 14:20     Borges, Rawls, and the Democratic Scapegoat 25:20     Accountability 201 28:18     Institutionalized Chaos 33:08     Narrative Hypnosis 36:12     Closing Credits   === Transcript and Bibliography:  https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-31-tyranny-chance-assis-borges/ New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what's going on here! I've got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website:  https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky:  @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “6.31: The Tyranny of Chance: Assis, Borges, and the Randomized Bargain,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 13 April 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.