Hey all, first post, registered
just to respond to this thread

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My problem with currency lies in the fundamental psychology behind it, most aptly put in the phrase "every man has his price". The concept of currency relies on the assumption that anything, no matter what, can be quanitifed and subsequently bought, sold, or otherwise manipulated or destroyed for a price. In doing this we strip every thing or action of its intrinsic, "sentimental" value, and reduce it to a number (preceded by dollar signs, pounds, etc.). While it may serve the use of connecting people to each other economically, what it really does at a general level is unify our states of mind. It is no coincidence that this unified state of mind tends to think of things only in terms of their benefit to humans. It at once gives something worth by defining it in terms of the
limit of its value to us. How, then, can anything be defined otherwise and be taken seriously, when money is the "bottom line"?
Money, for example, is worthless for any practical function besides facilitating the wider system of currency or acting as a paperweight; it is worth a great deal only because it serves humans so well. A tree or mountain, on the other hand, is worth much less because it holds little value within this system. It all points to the shared idea that we as humans have the right to decide what lives and what dies, what is good and what is evil. The dollar is (one of) the physical representation(s) of this anthropocentric superiority complex.