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Thursday, February 11, 2010

Money On My Mind

A couple of years back (and by a couple, I mean two), I was at work and it was my lunch break. And I was going to eat at the back of the salon, when a lady walked in with a bright green dress and one of the stylists welcomed and complimented her saying, "Girl, I luh (love) your dress, it's so bright." And the lady responded, "Aww thank you, it's my favourite dress because of the color." Then she said something that caught my attention, she said, " Green is the color of prosperity, I bet you can't name something bad that's green." That's when I went on a mind journey. I started thinking about anything bad that's green and all I could come up with then was cyanide and Green Goblin from Spiderman. I even texted my friends asking them to mention bad things that are green, some said weed, some said jealousy, others couldn't even mention one [Quick note, if you can name more other things that are green and bad, please post them in your comments, thank you]. But one of my friends texted back, "Money." How ironic, the same thing that feeds you, clothes you, gives you a good education and makes you feel on top of the world if you have a lot of it is considered a bad thing? So I thought about it: Is money which provides so many good things really the root of all evil? I started noticing the money greed when before I rarely pay attention to, like rap/R&B lyrics such as these ones: "Money on my mind, because money is what I'm thinking"-Lil Wayne, "Get money fuck bitches"-Lil Wayne, "I don't understand the language of people with short money"-Mase, "If you ain't getting money then you ain't got nothing for me"-Beyonce, "Cash Rules Everything Around Me C.R.E.A.M"- Red Cafe etc, "..and I will do anything for the root of all evil"- Lil Wayne. With all these you can clearly see a money craze within the mainstream music, but it's a lot deeper than that, a lot lot lot deeper. I once told a lady that I wanted to major in Engineering and she told me to reconsider simply because they're not hiring a lot of engineers now and "that's not where the money is at." So is that why we all go to school? So we can major in something "where the money is at?" What happened to pursuing goals, are we now abandoning goals for money? When I look at a classroom I wonder how many students would be there if it weren't for the pursuit of money. Imagine if the Ph.D and Bachelor degree holders were making less than janitors and fast food restaurant cooks, how many people will still pursue knowledge? I know knowledge is power, but is money more powerful?

Hmm, I found out when I created a survey to see what kinds of things people would do if you flash a gratuitous amount of money in their face. The survey was simple, it was a yes and no optioned survey with ten questions and a fake price of $5 billion if the "contestants" checked yes to at least 5 questions. I gave a copy of this survey mostly to college students, teachers, people I work with and some random people on the street. Some questions were gross, others ok, and some challenging, they went something like this:

For $5,000,000,000.00, would you.........

1. Run a non-stop 15 mile marathon.
2. Change your first and last name.
3. Eat 6 elephant testicles.
4. Disown your family.
5. Stay up 96 hours without sleep.
6. Shave every strand of hair on every part of your body.
7. Cut out a body part completely.
8.Be used as a crash test dummy.
9. Eat 15 live cockroaches.
10. Dump everyone you know.

Would you believe out of 51 people this survey was given to, 10 checked yes to at least 5 (and one guy even did 6!), 19 checked yes to atleast 4, 28 checked yes to at least 3, 39 checked yes to at least 2, 50 checked yes to at least 1, and only one chick handed the surveyed checking all no's and said, "I don't want your money!" Now after they've completed the survey, I usually ask them if they'd do what they checked yes to under normal circumstances and all I got were a lot of "nope's," "no's," hell naw's," "fuck no's" and many other negative responses. So in a broader scale, for $5 billion I can make 98.039% (50/51) of the population do unusual things, and that's a powerful political tool. So politically powerful, it influences human beings to destroy other human beings.

Most average Americans always claim to "Support the troops," which is a patriotic thing to do, but they might not be supporting the troops for the same reason most wealthy CEO's do. What a lot of American's don't know is that there is a sea of corporations making profit from the destructions of war. Companies like Haliburton, of which Dick Cheney was the former President of, get huge contracts to make tanks, gears and weaponery for the soldiers (and when i mean huge I'm talking about billions here). Oil companies get a share too, that's why the US is still in Iraq and all the military camps located in Iraq are within a mile to the oil pipelines. Even fast food companies like McDonalds and Jack In the Box get contracts to feed the soldiers at war. Do you think these greedy assholes would want the war to end with all the profits they make from it? I don't. Even the United States mainstream media (which is owned by only four corporations) gets a piece of the pie. Their sponsors like McDonalds, and Chevron petroleum get more profits which means more money to advertise and that's how the media eats (off advertisement money) . The word "news" no longer bears its true meaning; in the mainstream media, "news" actually means propaganda. They tell you whatever you want to hear as long as they get higher ratings, and higher ratings means they can charge more for advertisement. This is all money controlling the strings here. Because of money we kill (war), steal (oil), and lie (news), yet we fiend for this drug without realizing what it really does to us. This drug even controls countries, just like Mr. Jensen (one of the characters in the 1976 movie, Network, a must see) said, "There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multi-national dominion of dollars.......We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business." And the number one rule in business is: Profit is good. Even if it creates a sweat shop (like Nike production plants in China), or a human killing business (Haliburton), as long as they made profit they did something good. So I guess the rappers weren't exaggeration when they say," Cash Rules Everything Around Me C.R.E.A.M.," and people don't lie when they say, "money rules the world." My question is: Does money rule you?

Look, I'm not here to tell you not to use money because it's the root of all evil, or for your to alienate yourself from this money hungry systematic society we live in. I'm here to preach the gospel of using your brain when it comes to money. See, I hate money, but in order to survive I need it. So I see it the same way a player sees his rich girlfriend that he doesn't love; I only use it.
My message is: Don't let money control you, you control money. Don't be money's bitch like most people, let money be your bitch. Be like the chick who said yes to dignity and no to $5 billion. This has been the Gospel According to the Messiah, have a wonderful one Blogsville.



25 comments:

Anonymous said...

First may I ask why the name Messiah? I agree with you on the whole money thing and I think most people know this but it's just been accepted for what it is i guess... I can't really think of anything else that's green and bad besides I can't be dissing my favorite color like that hehe

honey91 said...

small correction
money isnt the root of all evil oh
the LOVE of money is...

Enoch said...

Bad green stuff? Ugly girl wearing hideous green makeup. Counts?

leggy said...

i love money.:-)
people hate on money all the time but still dont want to be poor youve gotta choose man.

Realist said...

I am a Hip Hop fiend, so if you are writing something Hip Hop based I will scrutinize it. Cash Rules Everything Around Me, is by Wu Tang Clan. Method man on the hook, Inspectah Deck and raekwon on the verses. Definitely not Red Cafe...

yea i know it has nothing to do with the topic but i just felt like correcting.

Neo said...

kryptonite is green and bad (at least from Superman's POV)

we all like money cos it really does make the world go round. I get an education bcos i want a hot shot job that pays the big bucks, if i get all the dosh i need i'm so flinging my LLM into the bin and starting a daycare or smth! My point is as much as we'd like to think otherwise, if we had the dosh our lives would be a whole lot different than it is now.

Aradi said...

Another wonderful piece, dude. One of those also points you at a whole lotta interesting things.

"Lack of money is the root of all evil." George Bernard Shaw. That about says it all.

The interesting thing is, money started off the return one gets for contributing to society. Money here is defined as the promise of things to a person on any recognised form (nowadays slips of paper, credits, etc). As time progressed, it's an indicator you, or people close close to you like your father contributed. People are always looking to bypass the contributing part, especially in this information and digital age.

In that regard I think there is a very distinct difference between money and fast money. Money belongs to those that deserve it and is mostly spent wisely. When someone has fast money, there's a time bomb running on either the holder or the money.

I have a theory about money; it is not quantifiable by the Forbes methods of calculating assets, projections and net worth. Rather, I believe it is "qualifiable" by what you've spent in the past and how well that benefitted you. Don't worry about tomorrow.

Just contribute to the society tomorrow.

Aradi said...

Neo, is kryptonite really bad? If you go to Krypton you'd have superpowers!

Bad green things;

The Riddler.
Poison Ivy...

...you know, just that I'm thinking hard about it proves her point. Darn.

Unknown said...

Great post and by the way, are u Christian?

You are right. Money makes the world go round. Everything is based on money whether we realize it or not. It's very fortunate though. Money to me is a monster, just like power is. It makes u 2 do things u ordinarily wouldnt do. Jesus warned us about money when he came. As mush as I despise money, I must realize that it is needed for survival. I wish we could live in a world, where everyone gave freely and that way money wouldnt be needed. We especially see the effects of money in Nigeria. The courruption, the bribery. Once a politician was caught and was about to be prosecuted by the EFCC, he still went and tried to the bribe the people by offering 15 BILLION DOLLARS. Can u imagine. Look at how much money he stole while he was in office, while his people are there perishing and suffering.
I definitely would like to be successful and own a good amonut of money (both for myself and family and especially my parents who suffered and sacrificed for me), i just pray that I dont become a slave to money and forget God and make money my God (as many people do). We see how people kill their famil members in Nigerian to attain wealth. I try to keep my focus on my wealth and riches in Heaven where thieves cant get to. I pray all of you do the same. God bless.

EDJ said...

From my point of view, I can see 5 things on that list that people already do for NO money whatsoever. So why shouldn't there be 5 things that people checked?

Lol did you ever think that the chick said she doesn't want your money because some random person on the street shoved a survey at her and she was thinking to herself "WTF is this?". I'd probably do something like that simply because I don't have time for surveys.

You want an accurate representation don't put such open ended questions on a survey.

Yes, people want to be stinking rich--I know I do, I want to be so wealthy that work becomes optional for me. Is that too much?

I don't understand why you hate money oh!! Money is awesome, lack of money is BAD for the soul. You think people will do anything to get money? I agree, but I argue that the poorer they are the more likely this is the case. If those 51 people you gave the survey to were all "financially flush", I think you would have seen a lot of people pick less than 5 things. You give a bunch of broke college students a survey and you're susrprised at the outcome? Tsk tsk. That isn't an accurate representation of society at all!

Uwa K. said...

Lol @ wealth and riches in heaven..
Gosh some of the naive comments I be reading on here shock the hell out of me

Dark Neo said...

Snakes anyone?? Green snakes are usually venomous!

Myne said...

The love of the green stuff...nice thoughtful post.

Fragilelooks said...

who no like money? i love d green stuff and in any oda colour it cmes in. MONEY MAKES D WORLD GO ROUND.

Azazel said...

Lol I liked this Messiah

Blogoratti said...

Thought lack of money was the root of all problems..not the other way round. Feel you on the post though..

El-Divine said...

money is to society what oil is to machinery. if u dont hv it ur life will grind to a halt. but once u get it, u dont sit there and admire it...u move ur car to get to where u wanna go.

in other words, money on ur mind meand ur lackin it. when u get it, ur destination will b on ur mind! shikina!

LucidLilith said...

Money is EVERYTHING. Whomever tells you otherwise is lying. It is how we live. Without money, life so f**king hard. If I had money, at least 75 percent of my problems would be gone. That does not mean it wont be replaced by non-money problems...

Unknown said...

@ Uwa.
i see that u r not a believer also..its the best thing that could happen 2 u..I am happy that I am one..the Bible says that the fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom..foolishness on earth is wisdom in Heaven..YES..my riches are surely awaiting me in my eternal and real Home..I cant wait to get there too..to see God also..Jesus didnt even reveal all Heaven has to offer when He came but what He did reveal is more than worth it..what wealth, pleasure, or sin could be worth Hell..dont live on the moment..live for eternity..this is all temporal

24yearOldTeEnAgeR said...

Here's the chain.
I basically want to be happy.
to be happy-> I have to be comfortable->to be comfortable i have to have some needs met-> to have these needs met i need to have money.
Basically the love isn't really the money. Money's just paper/copper. Paper everybody agrees has value. We all just want the things we want and only money affords us the opportunity to get them. Hence the obsession over money.
I probably wouldn't do any of those things for money. But hey, who am i to say. Make it real and see what we'd all do.
Can't even begin to rack my brain about a bad green thing. :-)

Unknown said...

The miserable millionaire



Have you heard about the millionaire who is giving away the fortune which made him miserable? Karl Rabeder is a 47-year-old businessman in Austria. He and his wife live in an Alpine lakeside villa when they're not driving his Audi A8 to his farmhouse estate. Now he's selling everything he has, donating the proceeds to charities he has established in Central and South America.



"My idea is to have nothing left. Absolutely nothing," he told London's The Daily Telegraph. "Money is counterproductive--it prevents happiness to come." Rabeder came to his conclusion while on a vacation in Hawaii: "It was the biggest shock in my life, when I realized how horrible, soulless and without feeling the five star lifestyle is." Now that he's selling his possessions, he says he feels "free, the opposite of heavy." He and his wife will live in a small wooden hut in the mountains or a tiny apartment in Innsbruck.

Azazel said...

Good for him

Unknown said...

lol good one Azazel..i hope u saw the point i was trying to make..there is more to life than just money

The Messiah said...

Good find Chuk....that's exactly my point. Money is worthless, society just gives you the illusion that u can't live without it.

Formerly stealth reader said...

am off to go think........................deeply

thanks for this thought evoking post. cheers!