Reality: not just a concept anymore.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Unwelcome Guests: Episode #543 - The Corruption of Money (The Perverse Power of The Price Tag)

This week we look at the psychologically corrupting aspects of money. Our main presentation is a radio adaptation of Robin Upton's presentation "The Corruption of Money", which is accompanied by Beyond Money, a speech by John Taylor Gatto. We also hear words from George Lakoff and Vivien Stern on commodification of justice and morality.

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Our first hour starts with the first ten minutes of a speech from a decade ago by John Taylor Gatto. 'Beyond Money'. We take a break when he makes the disturbing suggestion from sociologist Georg Simmel that by reducing different realities down a single common denominator, money subtly degrades everything with which it comes into contact, resulting in a loss of quality and personal integrity to both buyer and seller.

When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.

— Frederic Bastiat, 19^th Century Economist

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We then hear a radio adaptation of The Corruption of Money, a presentation from 2010 by Robin Upton. This looks at how money corrupts on a range of levels. On an individual level, we hear how individuals internalize the zero-sum dynamic, before breaking to hear a section from Vivien Stern on the commoditization of justice. We relisten to George Lakoff on the 'strict father' impulse which equates selfishness with virtue and note that the psychopathic nature of the money system promotes the values of the 1% of the population who suffer from this disability. We review some of the language to consider what it can tell us about people's attitudes to money, and how it shapes them.
Looking at examples such as the Ford Pinto, we consider the tension between being effective at making cars and being effective at making(sic.) money. Government organisations, like businesses, are subject to the same dynamic - indeed, the impact of money is to make it harder to distinguish the two. On a global level, the same dynamic continues to work, advancing those organisations whose conduct and vales are most closely aligned with the psychopathic zero-sum dynamic of the modern money system.
Thanks to Lyn Gerry for the Frederic Bastiat quote
This episode rebroadcasts content from 345 and 505.
* The Corruption of Money (72 slides) Robin Upton