Stevens Memorial Library (North Andover)

The wisdom of money, Pascal Bruckner ; translated from the French by Steven Rendall

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

index present

non fiction

The wisdom of money

bibliography

959649953

Pascal Bruckner ; translated from the French by Steven Rendall

Money is an evil that does good, and a good that does evil. It inspires hymns to the prosperity it enables, manifestos about the poor it leaves behind, and diatribes for its corrosion of morality. In The Wisdom of Money, one of the world's great essayists guides us through the rich commentary that money has generated since ancient times--both the passions and the resentments--as he builds an unfashionable defense of the worldly wisdom of the bourgeoisie. Bruckner begins with the worshippers and the despisers. Sometimes they are the same people--priests, for example, who venerate the poor from within churches of opulence and splendor. This hypocrisy endures in our secular world, he says, not least in his own France, where it is de rigueur even among the rich to feign indifference to money. It is better to speak plainly about money in the old American fashion, in Bruckner's view. A little more honesty would allow us to see through the myths of money's omnipotence but also the dangers of the aristocratic, ideological, and religious systems of thought that try to put money in its place. This does not mean we should emulate the mega-rich with their pathologies of consumption, competition, and narcissistic philanthropy. But we could do worse than defy three hundred years of derision from novelists and poets to embrace the unromantic bourgeois virtues of work, security, and moderate comfort. It is wise to have money, Bruckner tells us, and wise to think about it critically.--, Provided by publisher

Introduction: Lenin's wishes -- The worshippers and the despisers -- The devil's dung -- On the eminent dignity of the poor? -- France or the taboo on money -- America, or spiritual money -- Three myths about the golden calf -- Money, the ruler of the world? -- Does opulence make people unhappy? -- Has sordid calculation killed sublime love -- Richesse oblige -- Should bourgeois values be rehabilitated? -- Getting rich is not a crime and falling into poverty is not a virtue -- The hand that takes, the hand that gives back -- Conclusion: An acknowledged schizophrenia