Critique of Money

Money is truly an amazing thing. Unerringly, it strives to control, though inanimateness is the foundation of its being. Paper, cloth, shell, metal or some other mode by which we assign value is merely creation of imaginary truths to measure a system built on collective assumptions. Is it safe to say the first form of currency was word? Not even written, but oral? Bartering services and goods may have been the primal roots for economy. Perhaps I am wrong about this because every example of early civilization I can think of used some sort of physical currency as their main source for trade. This is not my point though...

Humans are 'meaning making machines,' as I heard from someone a long time ago. We love to have the aspects of our lives have meaning; wherefore we assign emotional triggers to meaningless events or objects or even our own thoughts and actions. Furthermore, we forget we make these meanings and suddenly believe in their existence as fact. This belief is so fundamental and strong that even the simplest thought of its signifier suddenly brings forth the associated output (emotional reaction of created definition). Think about that for a second. And think about your own reaction to the word or symbol of money.

What is money? What does it do? What does it mean? Symbolize? Do you need it? Does it sustain or destroy? Where or when did you learn about money? This is where my thoughts go every time a troublesome time revolves this enigma that we hold substantially vital to our primal existence in contemporary society.

According to a Financial Dictionary, money is defined in 2 ways.

1) a commodity or asset, such as gold, an officially issued currency, coin, or paper note, that can be legally exchanged for something equivalent, such as goods or services.

2) as defined by common law: a medium of exchange authorized or adopted by a domestic or foreign government and includes a monetary unit of account established by an intergovernmental organization or by agreement between two or more nations.

Is this really what money is? I don't think so, because if this where all that money was humanity, as a whole, would not hold it in such high regards. Maybe 'high regards' isn't the proper terminology for it, because not every group of individuals treasure money as the western civilization does (as a whole). Lets restart from the foundation of money; the actual word, stripped of meaning and emotion.

Audibly say 'Money.' In this instance it is nothing more than vibrations evoked from your vocal cords and controlled into a pattern (by throat, mouth, nose, teeth, lips, etc.) into a verbal cue translated as the word 'money.' Write down the word 'Money.' This is simply a collection of symbols representing certain letters in the English/Western/Romantic alphabet: M -- O -- N -- E -- Y. Put together and it spells out 'money.' This is when we get into definitions. Money, as children may view it, is something parents fight over; something needed in order to get the happy things in life; something that is made of many different things. To a child, money is a toy.

Over time, this definition changes drastically. Money becomes absolute; it is the lifeblood of society to our minds. No one in the western civilizations can say that you do not need money in order to live; unless they are crazy or actively attempting to live outside society on the land (in which they may have purchased or someone in their past may have purchased and left to them...). Therefore, seeing money as necessity, it starts to take on different aspects. Money somehow affects our moods, even though it has to physical manifestation of action without our influence. A lot of people, if not most people, give money power. They think money makes them happy, even through methods of purchasing what will cause happiness (a video game, a book, a television, a car, a bed, a house, food, etc.). Thus money is attributed with the power of emotion. If one doesn't have enough money they worry, get depressed, stress out, become a different attitude of character. And why does this happen? Because we allow it to; because we made the meaning of money to have such power over ourselves. We allowed money to have power.

Can something without mind, spirit, or voice actually have power over an entire society? I suppose it can, because that's what has happened to a vast majority of people. Poverty, if not enlightened, is seen as a degradation of the human spirit; and how often is poverty enlightened enough to have the stricken individual happy with their life? When we look to the future, a majority of western minds hope to have loads of money in order to escape the life they live in; something they think is impossible without money.

MONEY MONEY MONEY!!!

I allow it to drive me crazy, to make me angry, to supply my comfort, to build the foundation of my dreams. I really wish I wouldn't, but I feel programmed to think of money as the lifeblood of society, of my world. If I could live without money, I might be happier.

But that's just another meaning I've made up in order to create yet another dream full of emotions that have meanings created by myself. It's a vicious circle that I despise because I allow myself to and I want to. Oh well...