New Pantheon (02) — Money
The god that truly needs no introduction
[Letter #007]
Good morning, son.
Your mother and I have recently visited the doctor to check on the progress of the fetus that we hope is you. We had hoped that they would do a sonogram so that we could see the progress ourselves, but they insisted that, at this point, “nothing interesting” was really happening. They said that once the various organs develop, there would be much more to see. I understood what they meant, and I agreed, but I did feel a little put off that they would insinuate that my son would not be “interesting” to me. The nerve, I say!
Anyway, I want to tell you a story today. It’s not exactly “a story” in the normal sense, with the whole beginning, middle, end, and all that. It’s more like a framework. Humans use frameworks for understanding just about everything, and very often these frameworks are developed using stories. Old German fairy tales, for example, were designed to teach kids that wandering off into the woods is dangerous and might get you killed. Various expressions and metaphors that people use everyday are used to convey ideas and concepts that might take too long otherwise to explain in detail. Cart before the horse, elephant in the room, or walks like a duck. Come to think of it, there are a lot of these involving animals.
I spent a good bit of time yesterday expanding my conception of this new pantheon. To me, “gods” are just another set of stories that help people to frame the way they see the world. I’ve read somewhere, don’t ask me where it was, that classical folks like the Romans and Greeks didn’t really believe that the gods were really, actually real. They were mostly just personifications of phenomena that happened that couldn’t otherwise be explained. That is, Zeus wasn’t actually spending time hurling lightning bolts at things, but it’s easier to frame ideas in that way. Of course, there will always be folks who absolutely believe that supernatural entities are just as real as the nose on your face, and I’m sure that was the same then as it is now.
Etiological myths like this have many different layers of meaning, and I’ve always found them a really fun way to see the world. All of the different gods have different personalities and specialties, and usually their origins make good sense too. Then came along the monotheists and bored us all to death with their “There’s only one God, and He’s the best and the greatest and the only and he’s wonderful and loving and jealous and vengeful and amazing and terrifying,” but that’s a different story.
More than that though, a “god” is a worldview that filters the way we see things. It’s a story through which we frame our priorities and make sense of the things we encounter. It determines how we conduct ourselves and how we raise our kids. To me, a person’s “god” is just whatever is the most influential lens through which they see the world, which is not necessarily, or even very often that I’ve seen, the god that a person professes to worship. Every president to date that the United States has ever had has professed to worship the Christian God, but they never truly have. Most have worshiped a god that I’ve named Governance, although a couple have worshiped Money.
I think some folks might take some umbrage at my naming of the gods, that I would not give them some sort of supernatural or arcane name, much like gods of the Dungeons & Dragons lore or those of Tolkien’s writings, but that’s just a modern conceit really. The Latin word “Venus” just literally meant “horniness” or “sex.” They had other words for those ideas as well, just like we do, but to worship “Venus” bluntly meant praying to Sex herself. The Greeks referred to two of their primordial titans as Uranus and Gaea, which is literally just Sky and Ground. Not all gods in history were named in this way, and least that I’m aware of, but it seems like a perfectly fine convention to carry on with these days.
I probably should have given this primer when I wrote about Progress, but there are some days when you just have to get the thing written out and come back later to clean up the mess.
The god that I want to focus on today is Money. He is the son of Hierarchy and the father of the god known today as Capital, and he’s the uncle of Progress. His modern worshipers and clergy will sometimes preach that he has always existed since the dawn of time, but that’s very much untrue. In fact, from what smarter people than me can put together from anthropological evidence, he’s not much younger than Hierarchy himself, which put his birth maybe six to ten thousand years ago.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
– 1 Timothy 6:10, New International Version Bible
One of the most famous early priests of Capital was a man named Adam Smith. I’m sure by now you’ve learned at least a few things about Mr. Smith, but he spent a little time in his writings to discuss how Money came to be. These days, pretty much everyone knows the myth, and there are many different versions. I always liked the ones that had to do with food, so we’ll go with that one.
The story goes that you grow blueberries. You like them very much, and you live on them. Your neighbor raises chickens, which she likewise enjoys. You would like to celebrate your birthday this year with a blueberry cake and a chicken dinner. For this, you need both chicken and also eggs for the cake. Your neighbor would like to help out, but she wants to know what she would get by giving you eggs and chicken meat. She doesn’t want your blueberries because she’s deathly allergic, so you have a problem. What do you do? You’ll have to trade your blueberries to some other, third party who can give you something that your neighbor does want. If you can’t find that trade, then you’ll need to trade a fourth person the blueberries for something that the third person will want, so that they’ll give you something that your neighbor will want, thus giving you access to eggs and chicken.
What a mess!! If only there was a way to simplify this! If only there was a single item, maybe a small disc of metal that we would all agree was worth a basket full of blueberries or a single chicken. Then, you could just trade your blueberries at a central market and offer some of your metal discs for your neighbor’s chickens and eggs.
Problem solved! Adam Smith saves the day!
It’s a really neat and tidy story, and honestly it has framed the worldview of many, many people throughout most of my existence. As a matter of fact, I didn’t learn anything through my entire bachelor’s degree in history to contradict that story. That’s just how things went. Everyone knew it. It took me until I was in my thirties reading through David Graeber’s Debt: the First 5000 Years to learn that it’s absolute nonsense.
No anthropological evidence throughout any period of time in any part of the world supports that this story ever occurred. It never happened. That makes sense to me, honestly, since Smith never traveled the world or interacted with any other cultures than those he would have encountered in Scotland in the 18th century. He was a philosopher who focused his thinking on the way Money worked in his age and the way he believed Capital should work. That is to say, he made the whole thing up to support his ideology, not unlike most philosophers actually.
Graeber does provide an explanation on the origins of Money though, and it makes perfect sense to me as well. Money was born of Hierarchy. That is to say, kings made it up and enforced it.
Say you’re a king anywhere in the world at any point in history. Doesn’t really matter when, since they all seem to share a similar behavior. You’ve raised an army, and you want to march that army over to some neighboring land and force those people to submit to your self-evidently righteous rule. You’re going to encounter some logistical problems, something much more boring to deal with, before you get to the part where you’re leading the charge on the glorious battlefield. The bards will just have to wait.
Your army is hungry.
Not just that, it’s cold and needs clothing and blankets, its weapons are in poor repair or nonexistent, and it’s mostly made up of hormonal teenage boys and young men who haven’t been away from their hometown before, much less been dragged across the countryside in what might be their first and only adventure. You have a major problem.
This is an overgrown gang of thugs you have on your hands, and every time they encounter one of the villages of your kingdom, they overwhelm the place. They empty out the larders of food, they strip the folks of their clothing and blankets. They terrorize the women in all manner of ways. You’re lucky just to get away from the damn place without them burning it to the ground. Save it for the enemy, boys!
Somewhere along the way, some clever king or court advisor came up with a way to make this problem a little easier to deal with. We take some of the metal we have lying around. Something shiny, silver or gold or copper, whatever. Cut it into small chunks that would be easy to carry, maybe flatten them with a hammer. Or better yet, make a punch with the king’s face on it and flatten them with that! Give each soldier in the army one or a few of these chunks of metal before or during the march to war.
Now, on the other side of things, the crown will declare to the whole kingdom that at the end of the year, his majesty’s tax collectors will visit every city and town, every village and farm. Each subject will need to provide the tax collector with one of these coins. Failure to do so will result in incarceration or death or some such punishment, whatever makes the most sense. Power backed up by violence, you see. What the king has now accomplished is to employ every single citizen as a provider for his army, since only the army has the coins — at least at first.
So, it goes. The people begin trading with the coins to make sure that they can satisfy the tax collector when he comes so as to avoid punishment. Blueberries for a coin per basket or so. There was really no need for it before, but the king is forcing the issue now. When the army comes through town, the villagers will be ready with extra goods and services to keep them clothed, fed, entertained, and otherwise occupied. Army is provisioned thus, townspeople get coins to keep the tax collector satisfied, tax collector brings the coins back to the king, king can then give the coins back to the army at the next campaign season, and on and on it goes. Whoever didn’t play along is punished.
[Author’s note: Speaking of playing along…]
This was the true birth of Money, from what I can tell. As a framework, it makes much more sense to me than the alternative Smith story. Hierarchy was established first, and then that power by violence compelled the use and exchange of currency in order to support the desires of the powerful. As plans go, it’s got to be on the short list of the best of all time.
It makes further sense to me when viewed as through the hypothetical scenario of authority breaking down. This is the part that I think the “gold bugs” don’t seem to quite get (those folks who buy up gold and want to bury it or save it for “the apocalypse” or whatever). When authority stops forcing people to use currency, they just won’t. They never really have in history without it being forced, except for the “spot trade,” which is where both parties are satisfied there on the spot at the point of the exchange. What will happen when Hierarchy breaks down will be what happened before Hierarchy was birthed into the world: gift economy.
Let’s go back to your blueberry farm. When your birthday comes along and you go over to ask your neighbor for some chicken and eggs. She will respond in the same manner as neighbors throughout human history have done, at least before the modern era. She will …
… give them to you.
She also won’t ask for anything in exchange. Why? Well, because you two almost certainly grew up near each other. You’ve known each other most or all of your lives. We people haven’t really traveled too far from home for most of our 200k+ year existence, where “home” just means the people and surroundings that your culture knows and understands. She would just give you the food, and then she would attend your birthday party to celebrate with you. Afterward, she’d probably just forget about the whole thing.
Eventually, she may entertain a guest who loves blueberries, and she’ll ask you for a basket to make some cupcakes. You’ll hand them over without a second thought, because that’s what good neighbors do. You may or may not remember that you owed her one for the birthday party, but no one is really keeping score here. You’re sure that she’ll get you back for these berries eventually anyway.
That’s a gift economy. People who live near each other just help each other out. This is how humans evolved. We’re an intensely social species, and we require these close bonds to others, even though some of us are a little more introverted than others. Everyone needs people, and historically, this is how humans have conducted business. Just with an “I’ll owe ya one, thanks!”
Graeber in, I believe, The Dawn of Everything (which would mean I should also credit David Wengrow) explains how there are still cultures today whose members will become rather offended if you attempt to give them something “in exchange” for a gift. The intent of the gift was to create a bond between the giver and the recipient, much in the way of the blueberry/chicken bond above. Giving someone a gift as we do today with birthdays, etc was definitely a way of showing affection, but it was also a way of building a “you’ll get me back someday” sentiment. If you were to instead try to “return the favor” immediately or otherwise balance the equation with an equal exchange, you would be telling these people that you don’t want their friendship bond. You would exchange like-for-like, and this would mean that your business is concluded, no bond remaining.
Money
It’s a crime
Share it fairly, but don’t take a slice of my pie
Money
So they say
Is the root of all evil today
– Pink Floyd, Money
Of course, there are times when such a “spot trade” would be useful. If a traveler is coming through town only briefly and may never return again, then there’s nothing wrong with a little cordial exchange in a like-for-like fashion. There would be no point in creating a bond with such a person, only never to see them again. You’d probably find folks who gave freely to such travelers anyway, maybe by direction of culture or a god, but spot trading would be perfectly adequate here. Give a little, get a little. But when the person is your neighbor, it’s best to build a working relationship so that everyone knows who they can rely on in case of need.
The offspring of Money is the god we currently know as Capital. He’s had many names in the past, and I’ll explain those when I get to his letter. His current expression is Neoliberalism, which has many of its own idiosyncrasies, among which is the tendency to isolate humans away from tribes and villages and more toward solitude or family units. This has been a huge help to encourage spot trading and the use of Money in today’s world. Money prefers spot trading, since that enforces his power and gives credibility to the old Smith mythology. I’m sure you can see how this would cause a lot of loneliness in people though, even with 8 billion humans alive today. No bonds with others necessary. It’s certainly affected me.
God money, I’ll do anything for you
God money, just tell me what you want me to
God money, nail me up against the wall
God money, don’t want everything he wants it all
– Nine Inch Nails, Head Like A Hole
There’s a whole lot more that I could say about Money. His power has shaped our modern world and most of recorded history. He’s mentioned in holy books of other gods and demanded by all religious institutions. He’s provided by (and enforced by) most global governments, and he’s worked his way into the subconscious of just about every human alive today. He’s the god of bribery and politicians, Wall Street and billionaires, gamblers and corrupt judges. It’s easy to see who his followers truly are by simply asking what the biggest driving force is behind someone’s actions.
They say Money makes the world go ‘round, but I tend to believe that the world can manage spinning just fine on its own. When it was “invented,” for lack of a better way to say that, the possibility of “wealthy people” was also invented. So was the concept of “poverty.” Haves and have-nots. Just, like, my opinion, man? I think we’d all be better off without Money, but just go around saying that out loud and you’ll see real quick who are faithful to their beloved deity.
[A] man whose limbs had been bound from birth, but who had nevertheless found out how to hobble about, might attribute to the very bands that bound him his ability to move, while, on the contrary, they would diminish and paralyze the muscular energy of his limbs.
…
Suppose a doctor brought forward a complete theory, with a thousand ably invented illustrations, to persuade the man with bound limbs that, if his limbs were freed, he could not walk, or even live. The man would defend his bands furiously and consider anyone his enemy who tried to tear them off.
– Errico Malatesta, Anarchy, pub. 1891
I think often about this Malatesta quote. It fits so many different subjects. Indeed, it fits the behavior of the faithful in many a religious ideology. Keep it in mind as we continue to go through the other gods in the pantheon. It will apply to more than a few of them.
I’ve gone on for far too long today though. I love you very, very much, son. I hope that you’re doing well today. In just under another five months or so, we’ll learn whether the Tiny Bear that your mother carries is you. I worry for your future every day. I sincerely hope that we’re able to prepare you somehow to better handle this world that humanity has literally never seen before. In truth, it scares the hell out of me, but I will move heaven and earth for you, son.
Now, go forth and try to establish some of those friendship bonds with gifts. Make that a tradition that people do again. I’m proud of you.
Your father,
Papa Bear
[Author’s note: This is a series of letters that I intend to print to paper and deliver to my son, probably around the year 2040. You are more than welcome to read along. The links in the article are only for you, the reader, and will include citations, jokes, asides, and links to books or other items. If you happen to purchase anything through such a link, I’ll get a small commission. Every little bit helps, right?]
