Reflection on the visit to the exhibition

Blog Post Two  
Oscar Weng

The visit to the art exhibition for Money Worries today was fascinating. I never imagined that the art and money could be combined in such an organic way. What impressed me the most, however, is the moral limits of money. From the picture depicting a woman with cross hanging on the neck, we can see the dignity that refuses to bow to money. Indeed markets seem to permeate our society to an extent that almost everything could be bought with money. Economists manage to describe even a university as a market. We can also see cases of rich family donating millions of dollars to send their children to elite universities. However, the refusal of transaction in this picture shows us that there are things that could not be valued by money. The seventh law of money stresses the importance of friendship. Once we pay money to get a “friendship”, it loses its original value.
I will take a step further and claim that a market economy is good, but a market society is not. We always have to keep in mind that there are certain morales that should not be corrupted by money. Tocqueville expressed his praise for the new-founded United States, as citizens interact and take social responsibility willingly. He warned, however, as market grows and materialism plays a bigger role, such sense of community and even morality would fade, which is true if we study the behaviors of an increasing number of American citizens.

As Prof. Douthwaite reminded us at the end of the visit, money is just a piece of paper and we assign them different values. “If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.” (By Edmund Burke)

Comments

  1. jdoutFebruary 6, 2018 at 12:55 PM

    Hi Oscar, thanks for the thoughtful article. Since the formatting is not quite right, I took the liberty of copying and pasting your article below. Very much appreciated your detailed reflections.
    jdv

    The visit to the art exhibition for Money Worries today was fascinating. I never imagined that the art and money could be combined in such an organic way. What impressed me the most, however, is the moral limits of money. From the picture depicting a woman with cross hanging on the neck, we can see the dignity that refuses to bow to money. Indeed markets seem to permeate our society to an extent that almost everything could be bought with money. Economists manage to describe even a university as a market. We can also see cases of rich family donating millions of dollars to send their children to elite universities. However, the refusal of transaction in this picture shows us that there are things that could not be valued by money. The seventh law of money stresses the importance of friendship. Once we pay money to get a “friendship”, it loses its original value.
    I will take a step further and claim that a market economy is good, but a market society is not. We always have to keep in mind that there are certain morales that should not be corrupted by money. Tocqueville expressed his praise for the new-founded United States, as citizens interact and take social responsibility willingly. He warned, however, as market grows and materialism plays a bigger role, such sense of community and even morality would fade, which is true if we study the behaviors of an increasing number of American citizens.

    As Prof. Douthwaite reminded us at the end of the visit, money is just a piece of paper and we assign them different values. “If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.” (By Edmund Burke)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thing 11, Foreign Aid, Paternalism, and Africa

In class yesterday something very interesting was stated by either Ashley, Manuel, or Professor Douthwaite Viglione on the topic of foreign aid and how it is actually harmful to some developing nations. Thing 11 (Africa is not destined for underdevelopment) piqued my interest because this topic comes up so much when discussing global development. The greatest issue with how the media portrays foreign aid and the "wonderful" picture that they paint of poverty is that it is not a complete depiction of what the issue actually is. The issue of poverty is far too complex to mark it as something clear-cut, or “black or white” that can be solved systematically with a “quick fix” such as volunteers coming in and heroically fixing every issue that plagues a country. Social problems are not "one-time" issues to be conquered and that's that, rather they are often cyclical and reoccuring. So when celebrities travel to these countries and show videos of the barren land and...
Read more

A tie in to my art talk and sending out hopeful messages

María Mendoza - Blog post 1 Last week during my art talk, I really wanted to emphasize the point that there is a lot of social commentary that can be made through various forms of art. In particular, we see contemporary art as a great medium for expressing ideas because it is so recent and relatable to most people. Difficult and uncomfortable topics can be discussed more readily through art, which I believe is essential to its existence. Besides appreciating the beauty of a work, one must also take into consideration the message the artist was trying to convey. Often, artists wish to tell the audience something through their masterpieces.          Art in itself is very powerful and important because of its power of persuasion and ability to send out hopeful messages (though not all art will portray the same message – that all depends on the artist). But to that point, I think all art will have some sort of purpose. Just thin...
Read more

Billet de 20 francs-- Debussy

Image
Billet de 20 francs Debussy Ashley Lo The bill I received was created by the Bank of France in 1980. It came into circulation in October 1981 and, as the Franc currency was replaced by Euros in 2002, it too went out of circulation.  Created by the painter Marcel Baschet, , this note depicts a portrait of Claude Debussy, famous French composer, with a turbulent scenery of the sea in the background that echos with Debussy’s “La Mer.” Debussy was one of the most prominent Impressionist composers. He was made “Chevalier of the Legion of Honor” in 1903 . Some of Debussy’s most famous works include “Clair De Lune,” “Reflets dans l’eau” and “Arabesque No.1.”   In reality, Debussy indulged in luxurious life and often spent more than he earned,   It’s quite interesting that, Debussy, who was at one point over 42,000 Francs in debt to Durand, his publisher, then becomes the face of money more than six decades after his life. I personally love...
Read more