The Machine Will Never Triumph, part ten

Money

Money-madness—

Money is our madness, our vast collective madness.

And of course, if the multitude is mad
the individual carries his own grain of insanity around with him.

I doubt if any man living hands out a pound note without a pang;
and a real tremor, if he hands out a ten-pound note.

We quail, money makes us quail.
It has got us down, we grovel before it in strange terror.
And no wonder, for money has a fearful cruel power among men.

But it is not money we are so terrified of,
it is the collective money-madness of mankind.
For mankind says with one voice: How much is he worth?
Has he no money? Then let him eat dirt, and go cold.—

And if I have no money, they will give me a little bread
so I do not die,
but they will make me eat dirt with it.
I shall have to eat dirt, I shall have to eat dirt
if I have no money.

It is that I am frightened of.
And that fear can become a delirium.
It is fear of my money-mad fellow men.

We must have some money
to save us from eating dirt.

And this is all wrong.

Bread should be free,
shelter should be free,
fire should be free
to all and anybody, all and anybody, all over the world.

We must regain our sanity about money
before we start killing one another about it.
It’s one thing or the other.¹

Money has been called the root of all evil, but it is not money that is evil, but what people will do with and for money that is evil. Money, metaphysically, is a nothing; it has no meaning. Symbolically, money stands for power, prestige, and so nearly everyone fights nearly everyone else to end up on top. Money as a concept should not exist and should never have existed. No animals make use of currency, and human tribes only started to use money in the relatively recent past. Money should be abolished from the face of the earth, but that will only help if avarice is also abolished from the hearts of men.