A recent talking point re-emerges in another light....

[David Morris]

Gold ain't shit, but it's the next best thing:

According to Freudian theory the human infant passes through a stage
–the anal stage- as a result of which the libido, the life energy of
the body, gets concentrated into the anal zone. This infantile stage
of anal eroticism takes the essential form of attaching symbolic
meaning to the anal product. As a result of these symbolic equations
the anal product acquires for the child the significance of being his
own child or creation, which he may use either to obtain narcissistic
pleasure in play, or to obtain love from another (feces as gift), or
to assert independence from another (feces as property), or to commit
aggression (feces as weapon).  Thus some of the most important
categories of social behavior (play, gift, property, weapon) originate
in the anal stage and –what is more important- never lose their
connection with it.  When infantile sexuality comes to its
catastrophic end, non-bodily cultural objects inherit the symbolism
originally attached to the anal product, but only as second-best
substitutes for the original (sublimations).  Sublimations are thus
symbols of symbols.  The category of property is not simply
transferred from feces to money;  on the contrary, ***money is
feces***, because the anal eroticism continues in the unconscious.

On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 1:58 PM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net> wrote:

> So in the end the value of money depends on trust.
>  Like so much else in this world.