Those Who Toil Daily for a Living Have No Right to Despise Money!

2006/7/12 11:59:25

Even the ducks on Mars know that money is the grandson—those who put on airs of being grandpa or grandma just because they have money aren't even as good as grandsons. But those who toil daily for a living have no right to despise money! Because you're not even as good as those who aren't even as good as grandsons—what right do you have to pontificate? Those sour, stale literati, putting on an air of lofty detachment, can only mutter at grape skins they'll never taste—pathetic and pitiable.

Having money doesn't make you a grandpa or grandma; not having money certainly doesn't either. If you want money to truly be your grandson, you must first conquer it—make money your slave, not the other way around. Money, in essence, is a type of social relation—a social relation between people. Some claim to have never touched money, but never touching money often means that social or power relations exist in a form even more "money" than money itself.

There's an even more laughable claim: that exchanging a part of yourself for money is shameful. But money inherently represents an exchange relation. In a market economy, all exchange is ultimately isomorphic to monetary exchange—this is self-evident. Male literati exchange their waterlogged brains for money; male sex workers exchange another waterlogged part of their bodies for money. In essence, these are isomorphic—neither is higher than the other. As long as exchange exists, none of this will change, for it has already been determined by the isomorphic relations of economic structure.

In a planned economy, because exchange still exists, money or money-like substitutes will still play the role of isomorphic equivalents in the exchange relations therein. This point is no different from a market economy—there's no hierarchy within it either. Structurally, market economies and planned economies are isomorphic at the core level.

That "filthy lucre" doesn't cease to be filthy lucre just because you call it filthy lucre and bury your head in the sand. For anyone, "filthy lucre" is a hurdle blocking your life's path. Those who can get past it move on, then find freedom within it. Those who can't remain forever entangled, toiling daily over it, squandering their lives on it. No matter how much you curse, it's nothing more than a lament.