Divine and devilish in money

In this work the essence of money conception ambivalence is revealed. On the one hand, money universality and its transforming power, its power over people, the ability to define moral principles and also the tendencies of democratization point to money analogy with the divine power. On the other hand, in human history, myths and traditional conceptions, money associated with something devilish and dirty, with appearing of the evil spirit very often.The connection of money with divine we can find in the following points. - The Polanyis' investigation has shown that money appearance did not mean its usage as a universal exchange process. In particular, money usage as a source of payment was not connected with economical bargains. Firstly, any payment was like a punishment of guilt, it was stated by Gods and by their vicars on the Earth. It was impossible to buy goods for this money but it was possible to get expiation. - Money universality in modern society allows speaking about the importance of utilitarian ethics where money takes the moral God's power. - Money thanks to its ability to calculate everything and, on ground that, to compare establishes has its own world order. - Gold as one of the most ancient money equivalents is also one of the most ancient God's symbols. There is an opposite view. One of the main reasons of mythological conceptions about money is that there is a motive which sounds like "Money belongs to the evil spirit". For example, according to the ancient Babylonians' view point money is hellish eruption. In Russian peasant culture there is a superstition that money is brought by devil or snakes. In modern Russian society the associative relation of money with something dark and dirty is rather spread and well-established. The mentioned ambivalence can be continued with the following factors. Firstly, money universality, their power over people causes a clash between their uselessness as a subject taken beyond exchange function. This contrast is between the most important and, as a matter of fact, uselessness. Money performs the abstract usage, but itself it is "dead". Secondly, money property itself is to destroy the conception of interpersonal relationships, to introduce calculation principles that form the reaction of hatred and contempt expressed in conception about devilish essence of money.

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