no moral high ground when the elevation's 0": a sneak peek into issue 6

if you grew up anywhere in the orbit of atlantic city, you’ve probably had at least one conversation about morals. maybe about whether you give a shit if the homeless guy you handed change to spends it on booze. maybe about whether women should show their knees on the beach. prohibition. the casinos. every mayor we’ve ever had. the crda. trump. epstein. paris. nicole. everybody’s got a theory and a moral high ground. but guess what baby. this is atlantic city and we’re level 0 my guy.

so in this substack article are some notes from research for issue 6, poking around atlantic city’s long habit of arguing about purity while doing whatever it was going to do anyway. lenape ideas about the ocean, ministers selling the salt air as cureall medicine, gangsters rolling into town and getting turned away by pearl-clutching wasps, a deep dive into the protestant reformation (lol jk but imagine), and plus whatever else i fell into along the way.

a lot of the early writing treats atlantic city like some grand civilized invention instead of sand and tide doing what sand and tide do (which, to be fair, is pretty grand, just not in the way they meant). most of it’s colonial as FUCK. still worth reading though, if only to see how people tried to explain this place to themselves. but don't worry, i'll sift through it for you and continue to just give you the jems: shipwrecks, local gossip, lost history, etc;.

check it or wreck it: https://substack.com/home/post/p-188633401

do you have thoughts on how morality plays a role in a city built on bets? do you disagree? where does religion fit into all of it, and what about the casinos? does atlantic city feel like a breath of fresh air to you, or something a little more doomy? is it luck or something else?

all themes and questions we're exploring in the next issue of the diving horse. get involved and submit today! thedivinghorseac@gmail.com