[lbo-talk] From failed, surreal dreams to a plague of fantasies

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Sat May 7 15:05:08 PDT 2005


snitsnat wrote:


>i'm a slut for money.

That's money for you.

This inspired me to ransack my Grundrisse notes for this (pp. 221, 222):


>Money is therefore the god among commodities.... From its servile
>role, in which it appears as mere medium of circulation, it suddenly
>changes into the lord and god of the world of commodities. It
>represents the divine existence of commodities, while they represent
>its early form.


>Money is therefore not only an object, but is the object of greed.
>It is essentially auri sacra fames. Greed as such, as a particular
>form of the drive, i.e. as distinct from the craving for a
>particular kind of wealth, e.g. for clothes, weapons, jewels, women,
>wine etc., is possible only when general wealth, wealth as such, has
>become individualized in a particular thing, i.e. as soon as money
>is posited in its third quality. Money is therefore not ony the
>object but also the fountainhead of greed.... Hedonism in the
>abstract presupposes an object which possesses all pleasures in
>potentiality.



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