Our cultures obsession with money: killing our soul as well as the planet?

Money is the root of all evil. Thats a truism that isnt technically true. Money itself is neither good nor bad its neutral. And, in spite of what we tell ourselves, it has ! inherent value other than that which we ascribe to it. "ts #ust a dirty old scrap of paper or a lump of metal that we all pretend has some special worth and so we devote our lives to ac$uiring as much of it as possible. Many people become so hardened by their relentless pursuit of wealth that they cease caring who or what they have to trample on to get it. %eople are actually willing to &"'' in order to amass money, and fre$uently do. " recently read about a (ritish guy who was selling fa)e bomb*detectors to countries li)e "ra$. +e )new they actually didnt do anything, and he surely must have )nown that people would lose their lives using them, yet he didnt care because he was ma)ing millions from the sales. !n a larger scale, many of the big corporations that now virtually run our society and government ,than)s to the millions they spend on lobbying- are borderline psychotic in their actions. The pharmaceutical and arms industry are two prime e.amples, but it seems that no corporation is immune to this dehumanising effect and the bigger they get, the more ruthless they often become as they attempt to hold onto and e.pand their power. /o " would contend that our obsession with money is the root of all evil. 0reed, basically1 0reed is destroying the planet $uite literally. 0reed has been adopted as a model of success not only by first world countries such as the 2/A, but also by developing nations such as "ndia, (ra3il and 4hina, see)ing to emulate the American model. 5e are using up the planets finite resources at a ridiculously rec)less rate ,increasing by about 678 per year-, causing irreparable environmental damage. A report from the 5orldwatch "nstitute a couple of years ago warned that only a large scale transformation of our greed-based cultural patterns across the world can prevent the collapse of human civilisation.
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A star) warning, but is anyone actually listening9 The capitalist system has wor)ed pretty much li)e cloc)wor) for generations now. &arl Mar. predicted its immanent downfall way bac) in the :;th century, but he didnt account for its e.traordinary stic)ing power. <ssentially capitalist*consumerism )eeps itself in place by perpetrating the same act of psychological warfare that many religions have done before it= convincing us that what we currently are and what we currently have is not enough. 5e are conditioned from a young age to believe that we arent inherently whole or complete and that we cant be happy, successful or desirable unless we strive to ac$uire and accumulate more and more >stuff. %eople rarely stop to $uestion this and so they hopelessly fall for the deep*rooted lies that )eep the system in place. %erhaps capitalism can wor) when there are chec)s and balances, but when it becomes totally contaminated by greed it becomes li)e a cancer. 4ancerous cells )eep multiplying, losing all balance with the whole. A cell that )eeps greedily multiplying soon gravely endangers the entire organism. Theres a natural balance inherent to life and the moment we lose touch with that were in trouble. /ome believe that capitalism began spiralling out of control after the post*war boom when consumerism gradually became deeply etched into the human psyche. /omewhere along the line we ceased being people we became mindless consumers. "t seems clear that even to the government ,at least here in the 2&-, people are no longer seen as human beings, were simply consumers and virtually every decision made by government now is to driven by money. (ac) in ?77@ when the economy crashed " optimistically hoped that it might present us with an opportunity to wa)e up and realise that theres way more to life than consumer goods and fancy cars and TAs. /tudies have shown that as long as our basic needs are met and we have a basic level of wealth were as happy as well ever be and that accumulating more wealth, more consumer goods, bigger houses and more e.pensive gadgets actually does nothing to make us happier. "ronically its immaterial1 /o money does not ma)e us happy.
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"n fact, it can #ust as often ma)e us unhappy, because the more we ac$uire, the more we have to lose and this can cause a great deal of stress for people, in addition to the stress that was li)ely caused by their drive to accumulate it in the first place. 5e actually need very little to live on. As long as we have clothes, shelter and three meals a day were pretty much set. The problem occurs when, as my teacher Bames /wart3 says, we believe that our lu.uries are necessities. 5ere no longer happy with #ust the basics because weve been conditioned to believe that we always need more, more and more. And then even more. 5e become li)e cancer cells ravenously consuming and having little regard to the totality. /o long as we have our lu.uries we dont really seem to care that our overconsumption of resources and the astounding waste our society generates is )illing the planet, )eeping others in dire poverty, decimating wildlife and, as the 5orldwatch "nstitute warned, setting us on a course for the complete collapse of human civilisation. "ts also ma)ing us miserable. 5hen everything is driven by greed, people are no longer treated with respect and integrity, they are treated as disposable resources. Bobs everywhere are becoming increasingly stressful, people are being overwor)ed and underpaid as companies ta)e savage measures to ma.imise profits amid the recession. "ts really not pretty. " sometimes thin) the economic downturn has brought out the very worst in government, corporations and employers. /oulless employers providing soulless products for increasingly soulless consumers. !ur worship of money is destroying us. " dont thin) thats an unwarranted or needlessly dramatic statement. The evidence is all around us, plain to see. And the most tragic thing is that money isnt even C<A'Dwe all #ust collectively pretend it is. Ta)e your American dollar of (ritish pound to Austria, 4hina or Australia and see how much good it will do you. "tll #ust be a useless slip of paper there, because it has ! inherent value of its own. Eou might as well use it as toilet paper.
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4urrency was created as a convenient way of e.changing goods and services. 5e created it because it was helpful to use. ow this unreal, insentient concept has somehow developed a stranglehold on the collective human consciousness and we are very much being used (E it1 5ere a slave to it. A false god has been created and if were to survive, we +AA< to destroy it before it destroys us. /ounds li)e a neat idea for a fantasy novel, huh9 More to come on this topic. "d love to hear your thoughts1