I have slowing been scanning the nearly 1000 35mm slides my father took throughout his slide taking career. And in one sense these from the 250 slide marker are less emotionally rewarding. The 1964 trip to California took us by the Grand Canyon there there are dozens of landscape pictures. But what is the most fun is pictures of people, maybe in funny costumes. But I am sure at the time my dad felt it important to take pictures of these majestic rock formations.
But I am struck by the the picture above. I think it is packed full of meaning, both personal and sociological.
From 1964, my dad is taking a picture of his family where my mother taking a picture of the two children, posed in front of a natural wonder that took millions of years to develop.
I am certain my father did not appreciate the "meta" aspect of him capturing my mother taking this picture. But in a simpler consideration it is one of the few really natural pictures there is of our family. Even though my mother staged it, the fact that he is taking a picture of the setup is very cool.
You plop two baby boomer kids in front of sight with a geologic scale, and a picture of a picture by a couple who rode the post WWII economic wave yet both came from inauspicious economic upbringing.
That is the basis for mutli-genarational novel or the measuring stick of a mid century sociology text.
I watched the pilot episode of Mr. Robot
and really liked it. It scratches an entertainment itch that rarely
gets attention.
So, I'm digging it but there is a part
where Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) is talking to the main character
Elliot about the nature of money and says
“Money hasn't been real since we got
off the gold standard. It's become virtual.”
The point being modern business is
built on something that is “UN-real”. And as much as I like the
show, I'm calling bullshit on this point. Mainly because it buys into
a knee jerk libertarian talking point. That money “meant something”
when we were on the gold standard and now it is all messed up and any
moment we will be using wheelbarrows of money to buy a loaf of
bread.
Two things, the moment you start using
paper money all of business is dealing with “virtual” money. It
is just paper. Very nicely printed paper, but it is is virtual
representation of something of value. It IS NOT REAL, and never was.
But more importantly, even if everyone
walked around with gold coins in their pockets and we only bought and
paid with gold, that too is not real.
WHY is gold considered, well, the gold
standard? It is only because a bunch of people decided “Hey, we
value gold and want some more”. Gold is just a metal that by itself
does nothing. It is horrible for tools or weapons. And really for all
the gold jewelery in the world, they are only worth something because a
bunch of people decided it looked nice. But looking nice doesn't
increase crop yield or bring rain when there is a drought, or stop
rain when there are floods.
Gold is only of value because of
desire. The desire for gold has caused oceans of blood to be spilled
and killed millions of people. Continents were crossed and civilizations
were destroyed just because people decided “I think gold is
important”.
So back to using the gold standard, in
1860 why would a human being be accurately worth $800 or at the same
time a months rent was $4? Or anything? It is just because people decided on those
numbers and used them. Supply and demand is just about desire, NOT
about real value. Money is desire, and desire has no stable gold
standard, desire always wants more. So even if we were on a gold
standard or non-gold standard, it is all just a way for people to
place a dollar amount on human emotions and desires.
The universe did not start like a board game where bits of gold were passed out to everybody and the rule book assigned them a value. So please, for the love of God, stop
thinking of the gold standard as anything approaching a "real" and stable way to think about life.
