So today I was talking to my roommate Jesse and we were dicussing how money changes people. He said the other day while he was at church his pastor said, "money doesn't define character, it reveals it..."
On Monday I was hanging out with a friend that I haven't hung out with a while. Since we stopped hanging out he went from really struggling with money bouncing from job to job to a new job tattooing at this shop in town. He really loves it there and I couldn't be more happy for him. When we used to hang out we would find the most fun and ridiculous things to do and not spend a penny doing it, ie. hanging out watching friends tattoo/get tattooed, hanging in the park talking, skating at the skatepark; just good old plain fun. But as of late, talking to him I realized that money is who he is now and its really sad because it seems like everything that I would do with him now we need to be spending money. It's really funny how people go from the most amazing people in the world to these 'C.R.E.A.M.' type people just because they have some money now. The saying says it all really, money doesn't make you, it brings out the true you...
I have no right to tell anyone what they should do with their hard-earned money but i think instead of buying expensive 'toys' maybe you should put some of that money away in case of an emergency or even just buying a used 'toy' for a fraction of the price. It may be the logical thing to do or maybe its just the Jew in me coming out. But please tell me if you think I am being illogical!
I also think that with a lot of money comes an elitest mentality. I only say this out of observation from my one friend because his attitude and ways have drastically changed as well. He has recently said some things about other mutual friends that I never thought I would hear come out of his mouth. It was absolutely shocking and I couldnt believe my ears when I heard him say the things he did. It was like the money triggered the asshole cocky-ness in this guy. It sad but he is just a product of his surroundings. He makes good money now, so this must mean that he is an amazing tattoo artist, right? So much better then these friends that we have that have been tattooing for years upon years? Its ok for him to tell people he was trying to apprentice under that they have been tattooing completely wrong all along? Or maybe blatently just say that he is wayyy better then them? I really wish he finds his old ways sooner then later. I really do, I miss the old him.
Along with this, in America now-a-days, it seems like your possessions make you who you are; they allow you to 'fit in'. Its so extremely sad. Whatever happened to accepting someone because they are just really an extremely rad person? I hate that for the most part this mentality is completely gone.
Money destroys the people we love and the things we love. I hate it.
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First off, interesting blog you have here. I think your gf mighta come into our shop @KVIBE to work on her bike, if I'm not mistaken.
ReplyDeleteMoney sometimes seems like this big looming evil, but there's a lot of good money has enabled human society to achieve. At this very moment there are more artists, designers, creative types in the world than ever before. Money has made this possible. And not necessarily in the direct way that money is paid to artists or designers and therefore their pay scale determines their quality, but in the way that it allows us to work any kind of job, creative or not creative, and still be able to feed ourselves. Meh, I don't know if how I explained it makes sense, but think on it like this: if a culture is in survival mode, that is, all they think about is eating, subsisting, and continuing to simply exist, the arts don't usually flourish. It's when they advance beyond say, a basic agrarian system, or even the bartering system, that allows us to really, do whatever the hell we want. Money has enabled the industrial revolution, the informational revolution, the computer age. If we didn't have money, we'd still be farming, hunting/gathering, spending all day doing one thing and then using the rest of that day to trade to get the things we'd want beyond our basic necessities.
Money isn't inherently bad. It's a tool that has enabled humans to get insanely beyond what we normally thought possible, to achieve the seemingly unachievable.
However, you might want to rant about greed. It certainly deserves our ire more than money.