Is "this" really the answer to everything.....

When early man was transforming from wild nomadic tribe to a civilized society, the first sense of security came to him on realizing that it made more sense in being together in a group than living alone. Living now in groups and sharing responsibilities was the first step towards becoming civilized.

Eventually the organizing spin brought mankind to various new discoveries strategies and technologies that supported and enhanced organizing man lives. One such strategy of giving life a more accountable and organized look was introduction of money. Money by all means simplified and structured a lot of chaos which was growing unmanageable. The birth of money and its growth and progress was hugely dependent on its virtue. For a large part of history acquiring money or wealth by virtuous means was regarded a very essential aspect of virtuous person.

Who is a Virtuous person.? Is he someone of great wealth who could afford good things! If in order to be virtuous one had to be rich and poverty was invariably a personal failing rather than an accident.....than, Could one ever have money and not be virtuous? Could one ever have no money and be virtuous, Now if we added "just and righteous" to acquisition of good things, then it seems that justice or temperance become more important than acquiring wealth unjustly.

Money and its influence are not in themselves necessary and sufficient features of virtue. Rich people could be admirable but this depended on how their wealth was acquired, just as poverty could not by itself reveal anything of moral worth of an individual. Yet, today power of money overrules virtue. Perhaps because in general we hold unsound ideas as we have been absorbed in the prevailing norms without testing are logic.This has undoubtedly created two very distinct eras in the evolution of financial societies. The pre-virtuous and the post-virtuous(corrupt)societies. A pre-virtuous society valued acquiring means while the corrupt society majorly concentrates on wealth accumulation irrespective of means.

In my observation the pre-virtuous and post-virtuous eras have societies with marked distinction between them. For example:

1. Banks-In the early virtuous era, Banks were a place were an individuals saved their profits and savings for it to be used at the time when they run out of profits and savings. Post virtuous era penalizes the individual if is account is short of cash on bad days, in direct contrast to what it originally stands for.
2. Education- Initially schools and colleges had lesser students, teachers where dedicated and morally high in self esteem knowledge and dedicated to raising the level of expectation and performance of every student as their primary goal. Corrupt society today created more shrewd and manipulative teachers who is constantly finding ways and means in bringing down a students moral on account of getting more extra tutions. They are over worked, less trained, less aware, under paid and abused themselves thus making survival difficult.
3. Medical- Hospitals are all about saving lives and identified as places where you are made to jump back to your normal healthy self in the quickest possible manner to lead your normal routine. Today hospitals are known to be most dangerous places to be in, they want more patients, more sickness more beds occupied and more visits and revisits. If hospitals were suppose to be the places of restoring health, doesn't it make sense to measure them for the least occupancy rate rather than highest occupancy rate? Think about it.
4. Medicine-Medicines were used to protect and save peoples life from infections and conditions which could be harmful. Today medicines are not effective infact some are harmful, dangerous, addictive, toxic and sometimes even highly fatal to use.
5. Food and Drinks - They were places which had good healthy easily and readily available cheap food as a substitute for home food cook. Today food outlets are unhealthy, unhygienic and mostly very expensive food which is additive, and causes serious lifestyle diseases.....and so on...............

Who approves all these changes in society. Are we not similar to herd of goats and sheep, walking silently in crowds too shy, fearful and conscious to stand out by pointing out the wrong turn society is taking. We all are collectively responsible for creating a disastrous society devoid of values and virtuous people. Each one of that person is responsible who has got highly mesmerized by worldly goods and empty wealth of larger cars, houses and riches. We all have experienced the true wealth of life. No one can deny that the pleasure and happiness one gets sitting for an hour on a beach is far far richer and soul-fulfilling than sitting in an air conditioned room for 12 hours. The happiness of sleeping under a star studded sky or walking silently in a beautiful forest or climbing a mountain is far more pleasurable than a night full of dance and drinks in a club. Life is essentially about enjoying life, being happy seeking pleasure and mostly all pleasures are freely available.

Money is not the answer to everything.My thoughts are that Money is not as essential ingredient for a self sufficient life as many corrupt people run for today. Rich people will not necessarily be sad and unhappy but poor or people who are denied money are not necessarily sad and unhappy either. The merits of our society are confusing, although having a happy self sufficient life may be difficult but the obstacles are not primarily financial as many believe; In fact, we have corrupted money by misleading ourselves to believing that having more money is more power, more security, more pleasure and more happiness. We have taken a wrong turn while evolving and we must correct this mistake.