Why Do Anything Other Than Accumulate Money?

Modernity has negated the highest pursuits of Man and all he has left is trying to get rich. Can we get back to pursuing other, higher goals?

This article was originally written for a magazine as the answer to the question:
“Why do modern people only study things that can make them money.” However, the arguments presented seek to answer the broader question of motivation for all human pursuits, not only intelectual activities.

Why study if not to earn more money? Seriously.

Money is obviously a good thing and most people would like to have more of it. Studying for another purpose will only consume time that you could spend

1. working (you'll earn money directly);

2. studying something that will make you richer, or;

3. relaxing (you need to spend the money at some point).

You, an intellectual, a reader of this article, may have the perfect answer: "You shouldn't study for any purpose, but because study is a good in itself that should be pursued."

It seems like an incredible answer, it puts you on a higher level than mere mortals, who follow their animalistic impulses in search of more resources, living their lives in the 21st century version of the caveman who only thinks about eating and procreating.

But the truth is that this argument - of pursuing activities as ends in themselves - is not exclusive to intellectuals: any theater actor probably believes the same thing about the plays he takes part in. He believes that "only art saves the world" and that art should be done as an end in itself, not for financial gain. And even if the actor firmly believes what he says, if he makes this argument to you he's unlikely to convince you to spend your weekend watching his conceptual monologue about the anxieties of the trans experience at the humanities student in an university.

In other words, I think we can say that "study should be pursued as an end in itself" is not the best of arguments. The truth is that most people do their activities for two reasons: either because it's a natural interest of theirs, or because it brings some other end that they aspire to, be it money, status, power or something else.

It's unclear to me whether at any time in history large groups of people did activities because they thought they were "ends in themselves".

Many romanticize the centuries between 1500-1900 as a golden age of the arts and intellectual pursuit, before it was corrupted by money or power games. But the reality is that they were done for these purposes and one more: to serve God, either by serving him directly, or by understanding how he and his creation work in order to serve him better. If I had to get to the bottom of motivations for all human actions so that it was impossible to go any deeper, these are the three I would choose: you do an activity for money, for power or for God.

This division of ultimate goals runs so deep in humanity that it is the foundation of the high Indian castes: the Brahmins are the priests (they serve the gods), the Kshatriyas are the rulers and warriors (they seek and use power) and the Vaishyas are the merchants and owners (they seek and use money). If you don't like India and think it has nothing to do with Western society, you should know that these macro-castes (called Varnas) originated in Indo-European society, which is the same group of people that created the society of the Greeks, Romans, Germans, Persians and so on. And apart from that, it's basically the same as the division of society into states made in the Middle Ages, with the first being the clergy, the second the nobility and the third the bourgeoisie.

And the most interesting thing about thinking in this way is that there is always a hierarchy between the three goals that a human being can pursue: seeking God is highest, seeking power is intermediate and seeking money is the lowest.

This gives us some interesting ideas for understanding why "studying for money" is bad and how to fix this culture. The problem isn't that you should be studying as an end in itself, but that you're aiming low. Is your goal to make money? Pffft, a traditional Indian or Indo-European would laugh at how unambitious you are. You had three choices and you actually chose the lowest one. Pathetic.

This partly sheds light on why the West produced more beautiful objetcs in the past: Before the 20th century, the western man still had the possibility of doing their activities in the name of the highest, of God. And perhaps the mere fact of genuinely pursuing something with God in mind makes the fruits of your pursuit that much more potent.

This partly answers one of the political questions I've been thinking about most recently: "Why does the left produce such better culture and thinkers than the right?". Until the 1970s or so, the global left was driven by a religious vision of bringing paradise to earth and implementing communism. Obviously they weren't aiming for God, but it seems that just trying gets you further. Since the 1970s the left has become less ambitious, but they were still aiming for power, which remains a partially lofty goal. And the right? Well, since 1945 it has focused solely on how to enrich society (with economic liberalism) and more recently, on how to enrich itself personally, selling courses, perfumes, shoes and advertising crypto scams.

And finally, we have some food for thought on the questions at the beginning of the text.

"Why study if not to make money?"

Because you don't do anything without a purpose. And since the modern person basically doesn't believe in God and is very unlikely to get political power - especially through study in a countries where so many idiots are members of parliament - there's basically only one motivation left. To get money.

How to remedy the situation? Make Western Man believe in God again. Very easy.

Given that this is perhaps a little too difficult, it might be worth thinking about what God traditionally meant and we can come up with an intermediate answer.

God is the being who dictates the rules of the world and of human life, who says what must be sacrificed and what is positive and negative.

So at least if modern man is able to understand this - if he abandons the belief that there is no human nature, realizes that sacrifices have to be made and there are ways of living life and ordering society that are better than others - perhaps he will be able to abandon the idea that everything has to be done in order to get rich and can start aiming higher.