We are born naked and innocent, we die naked and... resigned, content, disillusioned or twistedly wickedly corrupt. Life's what we make it, and it's up to us how we choose to live it. But at the end of the day, as I said, the ultimate - non-negotiable - deal is that we all die naked, with no material possessions.
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| Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (Pict source) |
So here's my deal to Mr Moneyman... In order to get used to the idea of nakedness, our Gordon Gecko & Co. should start living by example, scale down their activities and travel light, instead of bleeding the world dry off its wealth and resources for that ultimate kick of the quick buck. Do we need $millions for personal upkeep? And mostly please do find out from the Forbes list if riches equal happy.
The super-duper rich may pop the Krug and squeeze the last of the beluga caviar grains between their veneered teeth, take in the sweeping views from their penthouse suite windows and powder their noses some more if they are so inclined. As they celebrate the ashes of 2010, greed has never had it so good!
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| This yuppie is making a killing: American Psycho (Pict source) |
Yet is it what happens when one civilisation has long reached its intellectual, technological and industrial paradigm, its golden enlightened age, and those obscenely wealthy elements that are influencing its survival are lolling back in one last sway of hedonism as the rest of civilisation, economically bankrupt and morally disorientated, is tottering on the razor's edge in confusion, risking to landslide back into the middle-ages like all great civilisations did, pending a possible but not de-facto renaissance, a few centuries from now?
Time will tell. Meanwhile, after accomplishing so much as a civilisation, do we want to head down that black hole of oblivion?
Happy Ponder & Happy New Year everyone!
Further Resources:
- New York Magazine: Yuppies Eden
- Daily Finance: Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy
- Enron: The Crooked E & Anatomy of Greed
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