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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;<br>
<br>
New York Stock Exchange -
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://timsanchezdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/new-york-stock-exchange-nyse-nyc-ratti.jpg">https://timsanchezdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/new-york-stock-exchange-nyse-nyc-ratti.jpg</a><br>
<br>
Royal Stock Exchange London -
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.bugbog.com/images/galleries/london-pictures/City-of-London/royal-exchange.jpg">http://www.bugbog.com/images/galleries/london-pictures/City-of-London/royal-exchange.jpg</a><br>
<br>
Early 20th century banks of Chicago -
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.heyhochicago.com/2013/10/why-do-old-chicago-banks-look-like.html">http://www.heyhochicago.com/2013/10/why-do-old-chicago-banks-look-like.html</a><br>
<br>
Even our stereotypes or iconographic representations follow this
form, the more contemporary type of bank being too indefinite in
stereotype;<br>
<br>
stock graphic bank -
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/bank-building-isolated-white-d-render-35678339.jpg">http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/bank-building-isolated-white-d-render-35678339.jpg</a><br>
<br>
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;<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/Sir_Lance/Ad28.jpg">http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/Sir_Lance/Ad28.jpg</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 11/16/15 5:08 AM,
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:p2p-foundation-request@lists.ourproject.org">p2p-foundation-request@lists.ourproject.org</a> wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:mailman.712.1447675694.4307.p2p-foundation@lists.ourproject.org"
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<div class="headerdisplayname" style="display:inline;">Subject:
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Re: [P2P-F] Fwd: The Church of Economism and Its
Discontents (GTN Discussion)</td>
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<div class="headerdisplayname" style="display:inline;">From:
</div>
Denis Postle <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:denis.postle@gmail.com"><denis.postle@gmail.com></a></td>
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<div class="headerdisplayname" style="display:inline;">Date:
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11/16/15, 5:07 AM</td>
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<div class="headerdisplayname" style="display:inline;">To:
</div>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:p2p-foundation@lists.ourproject.org">p2p-foundation@lists.ourproject.org</a></td>
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A Must Read and the Norgaard essay referred to as well. <br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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?<br>
Denis Postle</div>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Eric Hunting
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:erichunting@gmail.com">erichunting@gmail.com</a></pre>
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