Religious and Psychological Functions of Money
Money is said to have various psychological or religious functions.
One new religion told its followers that donations would expel the devil’s impurities.
These donations, which could be as much as ten million dollar per person, are a kind of religious payment of our day. Money is one way of “purifying” through repayment of social obligations.
A book entitled Living with Melancholia written by a psychiatrist Shintaro Shiba says many Japanese “live with depression,” and this comes from a predisposition for melancholic depression to be “honest, precise, clean, serious, and hardworking.” It’s endemic to Japan. Why is it so widespread?
According to Shiba, the cause is found in the characteristic proportion of gift to exchange in Japan.
The weight of an “exchange” that compels a return for past gifts or favors – an aspect of “money” as a general name for exchangeable quantities – is much higher than a “gift” that keeps on giving without asking for any returns, an aspect of “things” as the proper name for unexchangeable qualities, in a Japanese community.
Under the circumstances, people constantly feel compelled to return the obligation called Giri . “ Giri ” is a Japanese moral duty linked to social indebtedness.
Although it is not that popular anymore, it is still a common practice in Japan for women to give an “ Giri chocolate” to their colleagues and seniors on a Valentine’s Day.
As a result of constantly feeling obliged to repay social debts, there are lots of people suffering from melancholic depression. If a new religion preached that debt feelings in such a endemic disease were impure because they arose from dealings with money, many people would be willing to contribute a large amount of money to escape from their mental sufferings. “Exchange,” in Shiba’s term, includes not only “markets” – buying and selling commodities by means of money – but also “reciprocity,” gift and return in a community, in other words, “mutual help” ( Yui ). However, throughout this book, the term “exchange” is used only to mean barter or monetary exchange, i.e., commodity trade. It is important to note the difference. In “reciprocity” when lending and borrowing takes place, someone who has received a gift continues to feel obliged until he gives back. In commodity trade using money, since the money and commodity are equivalent, the relationship between the seller and the buyer is simultaneous and instantaneous, leaving no room for credit or debt.
The relationship is completed with every commodity trade and both parties remain as separate individuals with no further relationship. The human relation in markets is a cash nexus, in which relations are separate and completed each time. In a reciprocal world, purgation function of money as expelling “impurities” is thus religiously and psychologically meaningful. In the world of markets, on the other hand, such a function of money is not necessary. Rather, money paid in compensation is needed to end reciprocal relations between lovers and married couples. We are now witnessing reduction of reciprocal relations caused by rapid expansion of the world of markets.
I understand modern globalization not just to be a quantitative (macroscopic) expansion of markets as networks of monetary trade. I believe it also includes the qualitative evolution of capitalism.
What I mean by this is that many individuals were once consumers who worked in factories and companies as laborers and wage earners, received wages, and bought necessities and luxuries. Under globalization, whether we are aware of it or not, everyone is not only a laborer and consumer, but is compelled to become an active investor or moneymaker. Over the past 20–30 years, globalization has reached all over Japan.
If the TPP (Trans-Pacifi c Partnership) is agreed, the tendency will become even stronger. Then the number of those suffering from melancholic depression as endemic of Japan may decrease, especially among the younger generation, much as the practice of giving Giri chocolate may disappear. What would happen actually?
In my country we say that "the money is the ruler of the world."Unfortunately,without it we can not live with dignity.