NAT THANCANAMOOTOO
There is a new ‘God’ that walks among us. He walks the ways unseen but ever present. He has hidden churches to his name standing tall against the skyline and clothed in glass and steel. His suited priests extol his virtues to all the followers in the world and we number in the billions. Even if we are unaware. Us followers belong to a variety of different religions and different cultures. We walk into our temples, cathedrals, mosques and churches to pray to our respective Deities. Ironically many of us pray for greater access to the new ‘God’. We all pray for Money.
Rich, poor or caught in the middle, in one form or another we pray for some, for more or for all. “Money, money, money, in this big bad world” that once famous line could not have become any truer. Without knowing it we have all bent the knee to a Lord that requires that we always do more, work more, create more, grow more. More, more, more to feed that insatiable hunger. All in the name of the economy. All in the name of Money. It comes in many shapes and sizes. It can be real or virtual, metal, plastic or paper and yet it has no other value than our belief in it.
It has become the lifeblood of our global society. It’s the standardized method by which we keep score and define social rank. No longer do we ply our trades with pride, we do it for money. No longer do we choose our paths because of what we want to do, we do it for money. Some doctors no longer practice healing or cure their patients, they practice to continue treating and charge their patients. Some Lawyers are not in it for the “good cause” but rather their billable hours. The CEO of a Pharma group once said: “My responsibility is not to cure disease or to ease suffering, it is to take appropriate action for my shareholders.” This statement was made when he was quizzed on the reasons for pricing lifesaving medication so high some people had no other choice than to die.
As a society we must look at ourselves in the mirror and realise the truth of our ways. We must set aside the hypocrisy that has been burnt into us and we have to admit that we are slaves to a new ‘God’. We are slaves to Money.