I’m the writer, but you live in fiction!

Living for money is living for bullshit

Corey King, Volunteer Staff

Listening carefully to a pair of mutually attracted students sitting across from me on the bus travelling towards the university, I was impressed and disappointed at the depth of conviction they had while they talked about money. The male in the pair was dressed in a suit, and, as he spoke, my assumptions about him proved to be true — he was studying business. They talked on, and I continued to listen, when suddenly, the thought hit me that this business student fails to realize something essential about the nature of money — it is fiction.

The commerce student began to talk about how he wants to work in business because it’s less subjective than art, and success is measured in profits and not on the tastes of a whimsical elite. I kept on listening, considering whether or not I should spring on him or let him speak on and maintain my observer status. When the bus arrived at the university, the pair went their separate ways while I continued to ponder the situation.

I realized that many people have this great faith in money as if it’s something solid and reliable. Faith in the power of money flushes daily around the halls of the university and leaves a scent that carries me to the Mecca of most human interaction, the mall (or the money pit). Even the most educated individuals of this world can’t break the trance caused by our retail-based economy. Sadly, a lot of my peers in law and medicine are seeking out jobs that will secure them with this great substance called money — apparently more nurturing than water. Even some of my own unshaven contemporaries in the film studies program wish to acquire the magical status of “rich” in order that they become powerful enough to achieve the state of artistic nirvana known as “freedom.”

I find it strange that many people believe that the only path to freedom is the road to riches. Why do so many people fail to realize that freedom and happiness has always come from within? How come only a few come to understand that happiness comes from the unburdening of such fluctuating treasures as material wealth? I’m not really sure, but perhaps people fail to understand that everything is conception. I may write fiction, but many of you live in fiction without realizing it. This fiction comes from the belief that money is anything more than a well-organized concept — an agreed-upon arrangement that we use to differentiate ourselves from all others that exist and unfortunately create power structures with.

Money is not real, at least not real like a tree or a person. Money is more closely paralleled to a book. Both money and books are human-created entities that are used to represent human ideas and concepts. Both are used to help individuals negotiate through the confusion of existence, but neither is truly real nor necessary to existence.

In objection to my statement “money is merrily a concept,” some people may raise a $10 bill and claim that they can touch it, and thus it’s as real as anything else. Of course, that statement could lead one to believe that Santa actually exists for I can touch something that appears “Santa-like.” Like Santa, money is merely a social construction based on ideas and beliefs. Santa represents the joy of giving, while money represents “time and effort expended times value of applicable skills.” The physical object of money, like words in a book, is merrily the medium that carries the non-physical concept of wealth with it.

The problem is that we’ve been bred like cattle into the concept of money. Ever since we were yanked from our mothers’ wombs, we are told that if you are strong enough and if you are smart enough, then someday just maybe some of us will be rich and powerful enough to do anything we set our minds to.

I’ve always found it interesting that in our society success is mostly measured by money; however, I don’t myself believe this to be an accurate marker of success. I believe that if you’re really smart and really strong, then you can figure out how to live in spite of money. We’ve been presented with a linear path to success (A plus B equals money equals freedom), when, in reality, many of the most influential figures in history, like Socrates, Christ and Buddha, were successful because of their wisdom, regardless of money. It was their ideas and concepts about reality that made their thoughts surpass mortality. A pursuit of money, power, fame and recognition is only the pursuit of one’s self, which is by nature a selfish and greed-filled pursuit.

Many of us work and slave away to be given a concept that essentially represents the social value of our labour. You spent your time acquiring a social concept, but does that really make sense? Perhaps to organize trade it does, but to spend one’s life in pursuit of it? I’m not convinced. I’d rather be developing concepts than dedicating my life to acquiring one. I’d rather acquire wisdom and love than a vast supply of a single concept. The power of money is only the power we as a society accept it as having. While societies change, one thing remains: true wealth (being defined as a total person and having spiritual freedom) comes from wisdom, not money.

To most, Corey King is nothing more than a series of generalizations and concepts. He studies at the University of Manitoba.