Just finished this fantastic book and wondered what people have surmised from the coin toss episode with the filling station proprietor.
In my mind, the detailed dialog clearly tries to hint at something beyond Chigurh being just your garden variety psychopath. Given specifics about the coin being from 1958 and having travelled 22 years to get there it could be about the inhumanity of neoliberal economic theory. Milton Friedman (one of the modern godfathers of neoliberalism) published his most famous paper "A Theory of the Consumption Function" in 1957 (which surely must have spread into public consiousness during the next year), whereas Ronald Reagan, who wholeheartedly adopted and began to implemented Friedman's worldview, became US president in 1980 (22 years later). This would also fit the three-generation theme in the book: Bell with his sense of duty and somewhat Keynesian vibe, Moss torn between the selfish greed of modern society and his fostered empathy and compassion, Chigurh being the cold instrumental view of humanity which prevails today.
Do you think the specific years mentioned bear any significance?
by InquisitiveAsHell