American society is going through deep existential turbulence, which has brought about an apocalyptic overturning of social rules and moral codes of the past. It is not only modern in the good sense of the word, but it is already engulfed by many social anomalies and phenomena that are typical and unique to postmodernity. Consequently, whatever desires we formulate or utopian demands we dream of, society and the lives of our people are stuck and cannot get out of the deterministic path of the market economy and the unimaginable idolization of the particularly important role of money in social life and its influence on the construction of the “individual status” of man.
It is the very compositional and functional nature of the modern world, which has at its center and values as a priority, all relationships related to money, whether directly or indirectly. Now, compared to the past collectivist and “money-hostile” society, things have changed in favor of individualism and money, which have touched the foundations of the moral and social order of American society. This reality, which has become a universal phenomenon, is now displayed “naked” with the entire full range and accompanying range of problems and consequences, natural and unnatural. You do not have to be mentally ill, or you have to be completely out of touch with reality, not to understand the banally manifested reality of the omnipotence of money, not to dictate its special role in the life of society, in the way of life of our people.
Of course, we have been mixed with the “world of money” for a while and perhaps we are not completely clear and calm about this almost “supernatural” power of it in the emergence of new social problems in our society. Never in the history of our society has money been at this apogee of unconditional appreciation of its social power, in this general social domination as an almost sole, determining force in the face of all other values and powers. No one can feel isolated or disconnected from the determining power of money and the pressures of the market economy. Even to the frightening level, when as it seems in American society, the syndrome of “ensuring certain symbols of political, intellectual and social status” through the mediation of money has begun to appear. But in my opinion, if we realistically evaluate what is happening in the social terrain of American society, it seems that money from the point of view of “instrumental power” is no longer in an equal position with the power of power.
Despite some of the defects we have as a society or political anomalies, which are the cause that still make the government with some excessive power, which is more than a “law of the times” an anomaly of American democracy, on the other hand it seems clear that the “instrumental force” of money is even greater than that of power. This means that we need to look at reality a little differently from the traditional perspective of equal parity of power and money. It seems that the formula that made the “traditional equation” of power and money acceptable, according to the classical deterministic connection that “power brings money and money gives power”, is in a critical position. We live in a modern society, which has its own rules and functioning logic, at the center of which, whether we like it or not, is money as a measure of value, status, success, failure, positive performance or professional scarcity. Because the power of money in society has become almost a “force in itself” independent of reality, and it is even in a very privileged position. The philosopher of our time, Jurgen Habermas, considers money as the “leading lever” of the economy, administration and its institutions.
But, we cannot help but see that the rule of money, considering it as the only measure for all human values, is creating deep social problems, is bringing about phenomena that are beyond the orientation and “control” of society. All philosophers and sociologists of modernity are concerned, trying to analyze the situation, to give social regulatory recommendations, even though they feel powerless to influence this omnipotent aggression of the colossal power and the unbearable power of money over man. Its contradictory influence has caused “deep holes to open in the surface of social life”. (Habermas). Of course, the fact that money has become the “general ideal” of all people cannot be denied. We would be lying if we said that there are people in our time who do not focus their attention on money, on the realization of financial goals at all costs.
The almost absolute domination of money is a reality that, apparently, cannot be restrained in its unstoppable expansion. In fact, the dimensions of the force and power of money seem “monstrous”. As reality is showing, the “battle for money” that is individually leading man has made him so closed and isolated from others, that it can be said that it is quite difficult to say that in this society, apart from the battle to secure money, there could be sufficient space for human “understanding and consensus” outside the connection and regardless of the “world of money”. It has also grabbed our society “by the throat”. Its power has extended without any limitation to every corner of it. It is difficult today to demand that society be social, humane or virtuous. Money has “broken in half”, it has even crushed not only these, but the entire system of values that in the past have been very independent of money, or that have not necessarily and necessarily circulated through its white and black “channels”. The old society has come to an end in its traditionalist essence and in the controlled and disciplined relations with money, because more and more the “earthquake of money” has crumbled the old paradigms of the society of egalitarian solidarity, the frameworks of that society that functioned almost outside of money (in the sense that it has today).
Money has brought new social and moral paradigms as substitutes, based on the “society of greed”, of man who is increasingly essentially selfish, individualistic and greedy. The power of money and the “black hole” of selfishness, greed for money and wealth, has taken possession of all values, pleasures, the measure of human evaluations and human satisfaction. People have become too attached to it, because material pleasure has become the first and most important goal of life. Society has been wrapped in the “shell of materiality”, reducing the entire dimension of human life, at the disposal of the “society of pleasure” and life put entirely at the disposal of personal pleasures, without any moral control over it. This situation has expanded the epidemic and pandemic of money, even to maximum eccentric levels. The epidemic of money is a product of the fact that in American society the reductionist concept of well-being has been set on its feet, now totally reduced only to the foundation of its materiality.
Undoubtedly, the good sides of the ideology, philosophy and mentality of money as a “measure of success” and an indicator of the assessment of “human vitality” in the market, cannot serve as a mask to cover its dark sides. Behind the epidemic of money are hidden many serious social wounds of our society, accompanied by many structural and social deformations, deep breakdowns of the value system, which in today’s time are endlessly trampled on by the market or are not valued by its channels, due to the lack of their direct and immediate materiality. This has led us to the situation where, as the Spanish philosopher Ramoneda says, “…in that flood of shamelessness that money sets in motion, everything becomes trivial”. (Joseph Ramoneda, “The End of Political Passion”, p. 85)
We live in an era in which man lives in front of and together with the paradox of money, which instead of serving him, is subjugating him, “oppressing” him with its great weight. There is no doubt that it is now becoming a ruling idea, a dominant logic, the logic of money, even to the extent of power over man, as the philosopher Emmanuel Mounier says, “which subjugates him instead of serving him”. But the power of money in our time has exceeded all reasonable limits, because it has become the only universal tool that creates, enables and mediates the realization of feelings of pleasure as such. In fact, philosophers and wise people of other times have been honest with themselves and their society when they said that money, on the one hand, is a “mediator of pleasures”, but that, according to them, it does not bring you happiness, but it certainly helps you achieve it more easily. In our time, pleasures have taken on a deformed character, because most people have a materialistic view of pleasure, which is considered as “satisfaction of desire”.
The only thing that is becoming a ruling desire for all people who have the means is the possession and accumulation of money. Without a doubt, no one can deny the universal value of money in any society, especially in one that is completely oriented and placed on the rails of the market economy. It is true that without money man cannot fulfill most of his needs, especially those of a material nature, which are realized only through the market. Unfortunately, it seems that nothing else is pursued with more passion than money. Society has been put in the “fatal” triangle of money, consumption, sex. But we are all eyewitnesses and socially concerned that money is being associated with the nihilation and lack of values, which, regardless of money, consumption or well-being, are making society “sterile”. The “blind” obsession with money, the return to the sole purpose of life, is becoming a widespread social disease in society, which under the sole pressure of money, has begun to neglect, deny and change moral values, like “old tires on a car. /Morgan White/
