Humanities & Classics 3270
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Sixties Forum
Humanities & Classics 3270 |
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In Reply to: Does Money form a Prison or Freedom? posted by Shannon May on May 14, 1998 at 16:17:35:
i agree with shannon that money forms a prison. The more money that you have, the more money that you want. It becomes a vicious cycle of which you cannot entangle yourself.
A funny thing about life is that it is several times easier to do something than to undo it. It is easy to be poor, but hard to change it. You can feel trapped in a situation where money seems to be the root of all troubles. But being poor does not necessarily mean unhappy. Some people are content to have just enough to satisfy their basic needs. Think about primitive cultures. They exist with barely enough food to eat, often very minimal amounts of water, cramped living quarters, a scarce amount of clothes, and yet, they are perfectly happy to continue existing in exactly the way that they are. What causes these cultures to become disatisfied with themselves is interaction with western cultures. Western cultures teach them about material "needs" and the people become greedy. They begin to feel deprived and find themselves wanting. Since western culture for the most part does not engage in bartering or trade, these people began to become obsessed with money. They want money so that they can buy material goods. Soon these goods are not enough and they need more money. Harris touched upon this when he discussed the natives who wanted cargo. They were content before, but soon became trapped in their desires to be wealthy like the white people. They cannot return to their former existences because they have had a taste of the good life. So they must become more like the white people to have more involvment and be better able to understand their culture. Do we try to understand theirs in return? No. We tell them that they worship the wrong gods and that they are pagans. who's to say that we aren't the mixed up ones.
Perhaps this entrapment is what happened to the characters in the Big Chill. They tasted the greener grass on the other side and had to possess it. But to possess it they had to give up more and more of themselves. They became greedy instead of giving. They threw away their morals and trapped themselves in an unhappy and unreal environment, built on greed and delusions. When people say that money is the root of all evil, perhaps they really know what they are talking about.