My Hippocampal Vehemence!!!!

“Money is the greatest of all virtues”, I came across this statement in Atlas Shrugged, when Fransisco d’Anconia talks about money as a virtue. As I read past the whole speech that Fransisco makes to Rearden, this one line stuck into my brain. As I linger on this statement I realized that this statement in fact could be debated over endlessly. We as children have had the fortune of witnessing India’s progression from a trouble torn socialist economy flirting occasionally with capitalist virtues and then moving into a liberalized economy. We have our parents and teachers all those who have been a part of yesteryear’s economies telling us how wide the disparity was and how the socialist ideology was driving the country. But is that all over today, I mean how many people agree with the statement that money is greatest of all virtues and do not consider the industrialists to be unethical looters. Probably the number is few but still many people have not been able to come out of the nehruvian socialism which we have nurtured for so long. So till date a person who makes profit and claims that he makes it with no guilt and for the reason of just making one is contemptuously looked upon as a looter for he could not have made profit by simple means and if he is not willing to part off with the money in the name of welfare he is a sinner.

Let us just consider why do we have to tell tales of Narayan Murthy being a simple man, who does the cleaning of his toilet on his own, has a soft corner for charity- to reaffirm that he actually is a great man and that he does great service to the nation through the company’s CSR initiatives, we don’t look at it this ways --that the greatest service he has done to the nation is by launching a profit earning company Infosys which employs close to one lac people.

This effect remains more so with the people born into the ages of our parents who continue to see things in socialist light and the sad part is the current bunch of politicians who are ruling us are all byproducts of that era which has learned to celebrate poverty and treat money with contempt. Though this discussion is bound to be distracted in numerous directions right from populism to socialism. The main point is that whether money and profit are getting their due in society- well I believe things are changing rapidly and for good. Money being regarded as the greatest virtue can still be open for debate, but if at all there was a debate on the greatest inventions of all time- I think Money definitely should win hands down for this is one invention that has changed the course of mankind, with so much energy at our disposal and the evolutions gift to man-- his ability to think, all made it necessary to have something that is the product of this thinking mind and is a means of survival but nevertheless is not a match to the mind. And if it was not for money the endless energies would have been directed to overpowering and killing each other to establish supremacy of one person over the other so if it was not for money it would have been for killing. That’s when I think the discussion is narrowing the gap and the greatest invention starts appealing like the greatest virtue.