Disclaimer

This topic touches economical, cultural, anthropological and dozens of other matters, of which I’m an expert of none. Here I will rather jot down the mixed thoughts and feelings I have, bred throughout living my daily life.

Prologue

Reality is shaped by the words we use. Alas, my Baader-Meinhof biased brain insinuates that the recent word overused is money. It makes me wonder if I want to live in this kind of reality. According to my own observations people (mostly well off and educated individuals) regularly talk about money, be it in social media or face to face. This even goes beyond morality, such as the revelry of fintwit over bitcoin’s potential price in the scope of Russo-Ukrainian war. So, why does this bother me, ignoring the fact that it’s cringy and in some cases immoral? Let’s break things down.

Alienation

A starry eyed hippie would claim that the root cause is the current consumeristic and materialistic system we have. Although it is, hereby I would like to talk about an individual’s choices within the system. The zeitgeist of a particular era, for sure, defines some characteristics of people’s lives, values and pursuits. But everything eventually boils down to an individual’s intrinsic value system. So, when does that twist in a value system happen for an individual to make them chase money? The first reason I can think of is the alienation of a human being from their true self. This idea is inspired by Wilhelm von Humboldt’s following thoughts, to which I can’t help resonating with:

whatever does not spring from a man’s free choice, or is only the result of instruction and guidance, does not enter into his very being, but remains alien to his true nature; he does not perform it with truly human energies, but merely with mechanical exactness…

we may admire what he does, but we despise what he is.

Those who love their labor for its own sake, improve it by their own plastic genius and inventive skill, and thereby cultivate their intellect, ennoble their character, and exalt and refine their pleasures.

I believe that deep inside people want to be valuable and live a meaningful life. However, in modern business environments the connection between one’s contributions and the output of the business is frequently vague and hard to measure. Not talking about that the value of the output itself could be questionable. This can lead to frustrations and deterioration of sense of self worth and meaning. Thus, people start to use money as a proxy for value and self worth. Also, humans tend to compare themselves to each other and profit suits that mission perfectly. Yet, it’s not always value that determines profit. It is productivity. And productivity, to my mind, is not a proxy for value but yet a requisition cultivated by modernity. It may cause value creation but not always. There are a colossal amount of activities on earth generating profit without adding value or creating questionable or temporal values.

Mediocrity

Another reason for making money the only measure of success could be mediocrity. In such cases individuals are left with nothing but chasing more money. Which again, can lead to self alienation and wastage of meaning. Which is, in some sort, a loss of freedom and identity. In my opinion it deprives a human of their true passions and occupies their mind with futile aspirations and mimicking behavior. I notice a lot of people caught up in this vicious circle. I am not sure what cure there is besides being mindful of these things and trying to cultivate love towards your own craft and surrounding people, trying to be less materialistic and more spiritual. I personally, try to follow that path as much as I can as the opposite is a path to mediocrity and misery.

Ego

The money driven culture is woven into our social psyche so deeply that it has become a norm to brag about one’s income or a raised investment. The phenomenon itself is not new but the situation seemingly has worsened. It gets to extremes in the tech world where incomes are stock-flavored and news headlines are VC-investment drowned. Which is fine to some extent, but what is not fine is that people tie their egos to such things. It’s grievous that an object invented as a means of exchange, as a tool, ends up owning us and catering to our egos. Thus, I would like to suggest everyone to humble themselves a bit.

Epilogue

The above thoughts concern more about our careers, business environments and the culture defined by those. Which are just one aspect of our lives. We should resist reducing our whole life to just that single dimension. I believe true meaning and value dwell in communities, social connections, simple daily events that happen to us and creations the effect of which is impossible to measure. How, for instance, should I measure the worth of this masterpiece or the amount of joy last Sunday’s cookie bestowed on me. Or do I need to?