[P2P-F] Fwd: The Church of Economism and Its Discontents (GTN Discussion)

[Eric Hunting]

The religious character of economics and finance has been apparent to me 
from childhood simply from the finance industry's choices of 
architecture, which has often tended to borrow the same classical themes 
used by states and for the same reasons; using the typology of sacred 
spaces to create impressions of power, authority, permanence, and reverence;

New York Stock Exchange - 
https://timsanchezdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/new-york-stock-exchange-nyse-nyc-ratti.jpg

Royal Stock Exchange London - 
http://www.bugbog.com/images/galleries/london-pictures/City-of-London/royal-exchange.jpg

Early 20th century banks of Chicago - 
http://www.heyhochicago.com/2013/10/why-do-old-chicago-banks-look-like.html

Even our stereotypes or iconographic representations follow this form, 
the more contemporary type of bank being too indefinite in stereotype;

stock graphic bank - 
http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/bank-building-isolated-white-d-render-35678339.jpg

Sacred design has very specific psychological impact such use clearly 
seems intended to exploit. Unable to directly use the symbols and 
architecture of established religions for state use, America and Europe 
appropriated the sacred design of obsolete yet still western culture to 
symbolize their modern governments' roots in Greek and Roman 
Republicanism. Banks and others in finance seemed to borrow this in 
order to relate themselves to the state and its authority while also 
cultivating a religious reverence for their activity. The bank became a 
place of holy communion where everyone speaks in hushed tones and cues 
up in lines like supplicants. This manipulation seemed quite blatant to 
me, after the fashion of fascist architecture or the similarly scary 
architecture of the Mormon church. An attempt to craft a kind of 
mystical Neoplatonism built on capitalism and the state as godhead or 
divine source of order. As a young nerd, I knew just how one should deal 
with such divine pretenders;

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/Sir_Lance/Ad28.jpg


On 11/16/15 5:08 AM, p2p-foundation-request at lists.ourproject.org wrote:
> Subject:
> Re: [P2P-F] Fwd: The Church of Economism and Its Discontents (GTN 
> Discussion)
> From:
> Denis Postle <denis.postle at gmail.com>
> Date:
> 11/16/15, 5:07 AM
>
> To:
> p2p-foundation at lists.ourproject.org
>
>
> A Must Read and the Norgaard essay referred to as well.
>
> All very welcome not least because some decades ago I tried to get 
> 'capitalism as a religion' on the agenda of science and society media 
> series but the Marxist scholar we were working with dismissed the 
> notion, 'back to the drawing board' I was told. It shut down that line 
> of inquiry for a long time.
>
> I'd offer a caveat re the Noorgard article, he writes as though he 
> believes we can somehow get outside nature. Might it also be 
> sacreligious to try to insist that along with us capitalism and all 
> its artefacts are intrinsicly a part of nature? An essential 
> perspective I now find personally. But has it perhaps become an 
> orthodoxy I haven't noticed?
> Denis Postle

-- 
Eric Hunting
erichunting at gmail.com

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