The Tyranny of Money

A few years ago I wrote a series of articles in which I identified investment bankers as the modern day tyrants since they were the dominant force in the most influential human system in the world – the economic system called “capitalism.”

Let me be clear, I am not against capitalism. My years as an entrepreneur, starting my first business at age 18, attests to my appreciation for the free market.

However, our current form of capitalism no longer relies on a free market. The playing field is no longer level as was envisioned by Scottish philosopher Adam Smith, widely consider the “father of modern day capitalism.”

Aggressive lobbying by banks and other financial communities has resulted in a society that favors those with capital; the result is the “haves” keep getting richer and the “have-nots” struggle to make any progress.

I don’t want to revisit this stand here (see notes at the end of this article for previous writings on the subject). I do want to bring the discussion much closer to home, to examine how we have agreed to giving power to the money, and how those with it and those who lack it conspire to create a victim and victimizer relationship.

Remember the old adage – “Whoever has the gold makes the rules”?

I suspect we are all hard-wired to accept this “truth” and it probably began in childhood with our parents who controlled the money and we children who relied on handouts or allowances for having any cash we could call our own starting at very young ages. Most of the hardwired beliefs we develop are “installed” when we are young. This relationship between money and power was shaped when we were probably under six or seven – the “age of reason.”

Next, we go to work. Our bosses make the rules because they are issuing our paychecks. We get married, and if one spouse makes a lot more than the other, there is often a deferment to the wants and desires of the larger earner.

Then we need a bank to buy that new car or new home. Again, they make the rules that we adhere to for making payments and having insurance.

Watch a group pf people out for an evening of relaxation and notice if one person is doing most of the buying and how he or she is deferred to by the others.

Notice how you are whenever you are around someone with great wealth, and the degree to which you might defer or acquiesce to them.

In the U.S., money runs politics. “Special interests” get more and more consideration in Washington and state capitols throughout the nation.

When it comes to ending this deference to money, it takes both the victim of the system as well as the victimizer to change things. If we have been conditioned to deferring to the money all our lives, we need to break that habit and stop acquiescing to the ones with the gold – thus ending the tyranny.

NOTES:

Here are some of the links to my previous articles on this subject:

http://renesch.com/2002/47-who-are-the-real-modern-day-tyrants/

http://globaldialoguecenter.blogs.com/johnrenesch/2013/07/index.html

http://globaldialoguecenter.blogs.com/johnrenesch/2008/10/index.html

http://globaldialoguecenter.blogs.com/johnrenesch/2008/09/index.html