The most recent financial catastrophe has been cause for a lot of public and private reflection. There are few other events that stir up similar levels of confusion, fear, wonder and outrage. Like most people, I believe that life will be different from this point forward. Foremost among the changes I am hoping for are the disappearance of the perverse financial instruments that caused this mess as well as the imprisonment of the plutocratic con men who perpetrated it on us. While those hopes are unlikely to be entirely fulfilled, the financial crisis provides an opportunity to consider how our language construes a relationship between value and money.
I am thinking particularly of phrases that use market terms to describe non-market realities. There are a host of these phrases--"marketplace of ideas", "political capital" and "investing in our future" to name only a few--that sound especially ridiculous now but have always struck me as bad analogies. The life of the mind does not work like finance because developing a critical awareness of oneself and the world is not and can never be a commodified experience. Rather, it is a process that cumulatively draws on the sum of an individual's experiences and knowledge. The ability to forge any meaningful intelligence is dependent on one's curiosity, efforts and community. These resources cannot be purchased.
Language that confuses money with value eschews the high stakes in making a distinction between the two. Many of us have an inability or unwillingness to distinguish financial value from other forms of worth, making it difficult to appreciate experiences and efforts that do not have an easily recognized monetary value. So it's worth remembering that not every good idea is thought for the marketplace and not every ravishing art object is created for the gallery.
