Dangers of Wealth as an End[1]
There is, in fact, a fatal tendency in all human activities for the means to encroach upon the very ends which they were intended to serve. Thus money comes to hinder the exchange of commodities, and rules of art to hamper genius, and examinations to prevent young men from becoming learned.
- C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
In the above title, the term ‘standardization’ probably warrants the most urgent attention. As to why I chose a definite article over an indefinite, and what exactly I understand by ‘opulence’, I will speak afterward.
In the process of conceiving how I might approach this topic, I was keen to avoid needless and drawn-out preliminaries. Presently, however, I must interrupt my brisk start to speak to the question that looms over every essay I write in this series, and more generally, every essay I write full stop: Why is this significant?
My instinctive response to that question was that it isn’t significant. Thinking further and deeper, I realize that it’s not that simple. The answer is twofold, with one part of the answer being simpler than the other. Firstly, I write (this) almost out of pure curiosity and pleasure. If, after thinking it through, I still felt it had absolutely no significance at all, no normative or didactic value whatsoever, I would probably write this anyway because of the pleasure I find in the act of writing itself, and to satisfy my own need to settle this topic with its manifold layers and implications and the like. So the short answer to the question, at least so far, is that it is significant only insofar as it is a kind of scratching of an intellectual or even ontological itch. But then a second part comes bubbling up: I said I write almost completely because of the pleasure and curiosity, but not quite. The more I’ve thought about this subject, the more convinced I am that it indeed bears some kind of moral fruit to discuss it. I’m well aware that this could simply be a self-justification which serves to satisfy my aforementioned curiosity and pleasure. I lose no sleep whatsoever over this: the fact that I could be talking myself into writing this by convincing myself (or you, the reader) of its moral value does not in itself nullify the moral value; it only means, if indeed it is the case, that I am a self-involved writer.
But, again, this does not in itself remove the helpfulness of the consideration, if indeed some value is endemic to the topic. Most importantly, however- and may this trump all I’ve said thus far- my constant prayer when it comes to my writing is that it would proceed from that part of my inner man which receives even its desires from God, according to Philippians 2:14. So, even if this essay is in the initial sense pure pleasure and curiosity, may it be of use anyway, because that pleasure and curiosity have their source in his eternal wisdom. Amen.
And now that I’ve dispensed with the very same preliminaries I was so anxious to avoid, let me get on with it.
Standardization
I said the word ‘standardization’ deserves immediate attention. In and for this discussion, I am aiming at three senses, or aspects, of the word- namely, the (portrayed) availability, inevitability, and uniformity of wealth.
First, I want to foreground the idea that opulence has been rendered or portrayed as ubiquitous. It is freely available if only one would satisfy some arbitrary criteria of ‘hard work’ (what is the threshold for ‘hard’, and what do we consider work, and what do we consider mere messing around?). It is accessible if only one would know the right people and have the right interests and social currency. Wealth, as the zeitgeist would have it, is not a conflation of economic, historical, political, cultural, and temperamental factors, but rather a solid object in the ether, the keys to which are available to those who look ‘hard’ enough, and smart enough, and in the right places, with the right people. It is nowhere in particular and is consequently everywhere. You cannot point to it but it is constantly within your reach, like the particles of air all around us. Think about the popular songs across the hip-hop,(t)rap, and/or house genres, in which the routine boast about financial muscle is so common it has arguably become archetypal[2]. Think of the popular dramas on the South African TV circuit, in which the majority of the attention and progression of the storyline pivot on the acquisition, consolidation, or displacement of material fortune. This assertion isn’t merely anecdotal. According to figures from the Broadcast Research Council, for instance, the top 5 shows with the highest peak viewership in June 2016 were (in descending order): Uzalo, Generations- The Legacy, Skeem Saam, Vodacom Yebo Millionaires and Muvhango. There are doubtless variables such as prime-time bias, but the theme is clear. With the exception of Skeem Saam, all the soaps in that list tell the stories of family dynasties, chronicling the conflicts for and within the family-owned companies, together with the material implications. As for Vodacom Yebo Millionaires, a “4-minute game show” on which entrants stand a chance to win airtime and prize money, the name- flattering as it is- speaks for itself. The money can be won by texting in a sequence of 9 letters in any order before the show. If the sequence of numbers texted matches the sequence churned out using a random letter wheel on the live show, you’ve won instant riches. In other words, guess the correct key, and you can claim your share from the ethereal treasure box of wealth.
In next week’s article, I’ll address the other two senses in which ‘standardization’ can be understood, and then, in part 3, I’ll look at some implications all this has for you and I.
[1] This article was penned around 2017, hence the examples from that time.
[2] Evidence for this lies in the broad distinction between ‘commercial’ and ‘underground’ varieties of music generally, and Hip Hop in particular.
Zama Moyo lives in Johannesburg. He completed his honours in international relations at Wits University. While busy with his honours, Zama was selected as an intern at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). He completed his MA in ideology and discourse analysis at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom. Zama has always loved words and penned a number of reflective essays on his personal blog Thought Box. He has also written on a broad range of issues related to current affairs. In 2013 he was selected as a finalist in the Global Human Rights Essay Contest which focused on ‘Human Rights Cities’. He is currently working on his doctoral thesis – On the intersection of ethics and public policy – at the University of Pretoria.
