File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2002/postcolonial.0203, message 132


Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 19:19:11 +1100
From: "saeed urrehman" <think-AT-riseup.net>
Subject: marx: "the power of money" 1844



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That which is for me through the medium of money =97 that for which I can pay
(i.e., which money can buy) =97 that am I myself, the possessor of the money.
The extent of the power of money is the extent of my power. Money=92s
properties are my =97 the possessor=92s =97 properties and essential powers.
Thus, what I am and am capable of is by no means determined by my
individuality. I am ugly, but I can buy for myself the most beautiful of
women. Therefore I am not ugly, for the effect of ugliness =97 its deterrent
power =97 is nullified by money. I, according to my individual
characteristics, am lame, but money furnishes me with twenty-four feet.
Therefore I am not lame. I am bad, dishonest, unscrupulous, stupid; but
money is honoured, and hence its possessor. Money is the supreme good,
therefore its possessor is good. Money, besides, saves me the trouble of
being dishonest: I am therefore presumed honest. I am brainless, but money
is the real brain of all things and how then should its possessor be
brainless? Besides, he can buy clever people for himself, and is he who has
a power over the clever not more clever than the clever? Do not I, who
thanks to money am capable of all that the human heart longs for, possess
all human capacities? Does not my money, therefore, transform all my
incapacities into their contrary?

from http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/power.htm

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