“I wanna be a billionaire, so fuckin bad…buy all the things I never had…”
Money will not necessarily make you happy but for sure it makes it easier to be happy.
If you’re unhappy, you can go buy a car, buy new clothes, buy a jet, eat a fancy dinner, give money to people and have people love you, treat people out, drink, do drugs.
You can buy respect. People respect or at least envy those with lots of money. Money brings status. And status brings value. Society says you’re important, high value….if you have lots of money.
If you have lots of money, no need to worry for about the baser desires. Money got it under control. Need a girlfriend? Girls love money. Need to provide for your family? Need people’s respect and esteem? Money got you covered.
But money can’t solve all your problems. If you’re a son of a tycoon, no amount of money will win your father’s respect if he thinks you did it under his influence. So what though? Move on, you have lots of money.
With money, you can coast through life happy with fleeting pleasures and never know the difference.
When you don’t have money, that’s when you got to get creative. How can I be happy and have value when I’m broke? Got to think outside the box.
Having lots of money makes it easier to be happy because you don’t have to construct your own standard of value. The world gives you one and you’re already on top of that hierarchy. Why would anyone reject that?
“I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
- Matthew 19:23
The kingdom of God, Christianity is an alternative hierarchy of value based not on how much money you have, how good-looking you are, and how powerful you are.
“Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth.”
- Matthew 5:5
You are not rich because of the size of your bank account. You are rich because you have God.
“But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.”
- Matthew 6:20
Christianity is an alternative hierarchy of value and anyone who believes, is worthy. It makes you feel good about yourself—even if you’re poor, weak, and ugly. When one is looked down upon by the secular standards of the world, one must look to other hierarchies of value to find esteem and status.
Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions.
Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions.
Marx: Secular poverty –>the poor turn to religion to find solace –> the poor accept a system of inequality given that once they die, their lives will be better in heaven--> remove religion and a revolution that will remove this system of inequality will occur and that is a good thing.
I understand Marx's argument but so what? No level of prosperity and equality will satiate Man’s appetite. Man is greedy, we have biologically evolved to be like this. Marx’s communist utopia is an ideal that can not be based on the imperfect nature of Man. To force equality upon its citizens, a government would need to infringe on their individual rights. [insert here arguments about the superiority of capitalism].
My belief is that meaning and value are subjective. If you’re happy, that’s great. Use whatever methods or systems that suit you. Worldly pleasures, religion, drugs, philosophy, whatever works. The hard part is finding the right one for you and the main point I have been trying to address is that if you’re rich, good-looking, and powerful, this process is easier because the secular consumerist hierarchy is the default one that everyone starts off with. There is a a multi-billion dollar advertising industry out there making sure the legitimacy and allure of that framework stays intact. And to fight that, to replace that, takes hard work.
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