On the Spirituality of Money

version

Well-known member
In order to understand what is taking place, we have to interpret Walter Benjamin’s idea that capitalism is really a religion literally, the most fierce, implacable and irrational religion that has ever existed because it recognizes neither truces nor redemption. A permanent worship is celebrated in its name, a worship whose liturgy is labor and its object, money. God did not die; he was transformed into money. The Bank—with its faceless drones and its experts—has taken the place of the church with its priests, and by its command over credit (even loans to the state, which has so blithely abdicated its sovereignty), manipulates and manages the faith—the scarce and uncertain faith—that still remains to it in our time. Furthermore, the claim that today’s capitalism is a religion is most effectively demonstrated by the headline that appeared on the front page of a major national newspaper a few days ago: “Save the Euro Regardless of the Cost”. Well, “salvation” is a religious concept, but what does “regardless of the cost” mean? Even at the cost of sacrificing human lives? Only within a religious perspective (or, more correctly, a pseudo-religious perspective) could one make such plainly absurd and inhuman statements.
 

sus

Well-known member
Money is a form of capital (there are many forms, e.g. symbolic, cultural, reputational, sexual)

What is capital? It is something that is "generically empowering." That is, it's helpful in a wide variety of situations.

For instance, owning a specific kind of wrench is empowering within a handful of situations. Having a drillset with many different size bits is more generically empowering—it's useful in many more situations.

(This is why "money is power" gets bandied around: you can't get around the fact that wealthier people are gonna be more powerful on average than poor people, because that's what money is. Liquid power. A thing everyone wants, so you can trade it for nearly anything. Them's the breaks.)

In this sense, we are right to worship money
 

sufi

lala
Money is a form of capital (there are many forms, e.g. symbolic, cultural, reputational, sexual)

What is capital? It is something that is "generically empowering." That is, it's helpful in a wide variety of situations.

For instance, owning a specific kind of wrench is empowering within a handful of situations. Having a drillset with many different size bits is more generically empowering—it's useful in many more situations.

(This is why "money is power" gets bandied around: you can't get around the fact that wealthier people are gonna be more powerful on average than poor people, because that's what money is. Liquid power. A thing everyone wants, so you can trade it for nearly anything. Them's the breaks.)

In this sense, we are right to worship money
 
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Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
Money is a form of capital (there are many forms, e.g. symbolic, cultural, reputational, sexual)

What is capital? It is something that is "generically empowering." That is, it's helpful in a wide variety of situations.

For instance, owning a specific kind of wrench is empowering within a handful of situations. Having a drillset with many different size bits is more generically empowering—it's useful in many more situations.

(This is why "money is power" gets bandied around: you can't get around the fact that wealthier people are gonna be more powerful on average than poor people, because that's what money is. Liquid power. A thing everyone wants, so you can trade it for nearly anything. Them's the breaks.)

In this sense, we are right to worship money
Yeah your last point there about money is power, is why I accept with a blank gaze certain appalled statements about how the rich get away with otherwise impermissible behavior. It’s obvious, practically a truism, that wealthy people are able to employ greater efforts toward whatever end they call for.
 
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Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
If their wealth didn’t permit such an advantage, they wouldn’t bother accruing it and dynastically preserving it.
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
I’m starting to see how it works in lobbying too. Laws should be informed by experts, in my technocratic opinion, but the exploitation vector here is obvious as far as the wealthy stakeholders are concerned. You just need the policy experts to craft policy suggestions which land in the overlap of the following two categories: policy that is ostensibly sound and informed, and policy that protects the interests of a given set of stakeholders. In principle it’s quite simple, just a matter of attaining sufficient technical literacy, and cultivating enough creativity, to arrive at such a junction. Beyond that, the actual game of communicating with policymakers seems laden with other incidental obstacles which are far less simple to me, at this stage.
 
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Leo

Well-known member
lobbying is an extremely lucrative part of federal and state politics.

policy that is ostensibly sound and informed, and policy that protects the interests of a given set of stakeholders.

why does it have to do both of those things? surely it should only focus on the former, right?
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
lobbying is an extremely lucrative part of federal and state politics.



why does it have to do both of those things? surely it should only focus on the former, right?
In principle yes, and to some it actually does - or rather, some people's self-interests are chiefly altruistic. But I'm of the notion there is always some self-interest, and that it generally isn't chiefly altruistic. IE someone is paying policy experts to devise policy positions.
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
I'm just speaking to how I understand the nature of wealthy interests using lobbying as a vehicle for competitive advantage, and what constraints they are ostensibly operating within.
 

Leo

Well-known member
yeah, self interest drives the train for the most part, far outweighing the altruistic part. the theory of what lobbying should be is different from the reality, self interest (or what one is being paid to lobby for/against) is what it's all about.
 

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
Money is a form of capital (there are many forms, e.g. symbolic, cultural, reputational, sexual)

What is capital? It is something that is "generically empowering." That is, it's helpful in a wide variety of situations.

For instance, owning a specific kind of wrench is empowering within a handful of situations. Having a drillset with many different size bits is more generically empowering—it's useful in many more situations.

(This is why "money is power" gets bandied around: you can't get around the fact that wealthier people are gonna be more powerful on average than poor people, because that's what money is. Liquid power. A thing everyone wants, so you can trade it for nearly anything. Them's the breaks.)

In this sense, we are right to worship money
But then again, we can withhold our goods or services should we feel inclined, devaluing the currency completely.
 
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