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And who is a “philistine”? The wording smacks of arrogance. Indeed, for some people, money has a certain meaning. This may be due to a childhood spent in poverty, when the lack of the right amount of money was fraught with hunger and disease. Or it may be related to failed relationships, emotional trauma, or betrayal of loved ones – then money can become the only reliable support that will definitely not be abandoned or betrayed. Another phenomenon can be associated with the loss of a person's ability to get pleasure from other sources, and he “gets hooked” on making money, like others on shopping or gambling.
There are many reasons, and contemptuous labels like “philistines” are best left in the era of youthful maximalism.
Maybe because having money ensures that the needs of at least 4 steps of the Maslow pyramid are met (food, housing, a sense of financial stability, constant interaction with society, high self-esteem, respect from others, etc.)?
A philistine is simply an “inhabitant”. This word acquired a humiliating, even derogatory meaning in Russia after the revolution – when all people had to turn into builders of an indeterminately beautiful future life, and those who preferred to live by private interests, personal, family, survive in difficult conditions and refused to put “social ideals” above personal ones, were branded with this word “philistine” or”philistine”. Those who did not share, for one reason or another, the pathos of building a “new life” or “socialism” were automatically declared alien, class – deficient and subjected to public contempt or, even worse, repression.
The power of money is disgusting. There is a huge scale of values in human life, and it was the capitalist structure of society that gave money such a “super-value”. In our traditionally poor country, with acute social strife and huge property inequality, the power of money was never particularly talked about, if only because the population had very little of it. Protestant ethics introduced the idea of restriction, everyday modesty, but this idea is good in countries where the population lives richly. Gross wealth, wealth for show, was always condemned in Protestant countries, luxury and excess were condemned by society. Let us recall Leo Tolstoy – how tormenting this topic was for him-personal wealth…
A rich person can play a very big role in society: all Moscow hospitals before the revolution were built by rich merchants, usually descended from Old Believers. A rich person can bring great benefits to society. Or maybe you don't have to.
I must admit that I belong, by birth and upbringing, with some stretch of the” stratum ” of the intelligentsia, which has almost disappeared. For most of my life, I lived “like everyone else”, that is, very modestly, with a small salary, which was always barely enough, but the problem of money in our circle was never in any way significant. I remember very well how my husband and I discovered at some point that we were making more money than we used to spend, and decided that we would not change our lifestyle. In fact, they changed a few things – there were desires and needs that didn't exist before: it became possible to go abroad, and they bought a car… But our attitude to money has not changed. But I do realize that money can provide a certain level of freedom. You can use them to do something important and even useful not only for yourself… I repeat, I am not a rich man, I never was, and I never will be.
There isn't a single truly rich person among my friends. I know a few rich people, not close to me, who give a lot of money to charity. Honor and praise to them. But the other day we were told about the wonderful fellows who staged a demonstrative run around Moscow in expensive cars – so they had fun. It's disgusting. This topic is big and important, short summary: evil is not in money, but in people. And this is a moral problem.
Because now their value is being fully and everywhere promoted. Rich people: beautiful yachts, cars, luxury homes, lots of fans. Wealth has become synonymous with success and recognition. As already mentioned, these are basic needs. However, in order to survive and in principle live a good life, it is enough to be useful: that is, to have some skills that you can offer in exchange for the skills of another person. No one has canceled barter yet.
In general, there is never enough money, there is always not enough of it. And of course, money is not a measure of a person's worth, nor is it a measure of happiness. It's all an illusion. But to understand this, and stop looking at a person as things and money, and at a person as a person, to understand that you earn enough money, and happiness is not in money, but in freedom from it, in an interest in life in human kindness and selflessness – this is real happiness. But unfortunately, it's hard to get rid of money in the modern world, which sometimes makes it sad.
The circle of interests of the average person is limited to their own basic needs and everyday issues. Spiritual and mental development, creativity, and so on are all beyond his comprehension. Therefore, money remains the only measure of the value of people, including yourself.