The Grasp of Money

Explanation for video: My movie is about the financial crisis of 2008. I focused on the fact that the crisis and it’s causes are something that have generally been forgotten, especially among my generation. I interviewed two classmates (Colby and Melissa), and of course, I have huge respect for them; however, when they described what caused the crisis, it didn’t seem like they exactly knew why and how it occurred! My claim is that the crisis occurred because of the nature of the capitalist system. Capitalism is an incentive structure and the greatest incentive is the profit motive! This understanding makes almost complete sense of why the banks gave out horrible loans. If it wasn’t for the profit motive, the banks would never have done it and the crash wouldn’t have occurred. Of course, it’s not our generation’s fault for not understanding the crisis. Colby says something very revealing in that he says that having an emotional reaction to the crisis is like having one a...

The Economy as an Organism The economy is not ours. Often we imagine our market economy as our creation and under our control. While yes, it is man-made, the market has grown and advanced to such an extent that  human beings are now dwarfed by it. Originally, the economy was merely a way to sell and produce luxury, relatively uncommon goods; very rarely did people interact with the market out of necessity. Food, water, social interaction, etc. were still provided by the various social systems (religion, family, etc.) and safety nets that people were born into. As the market expanded, however, interaction with it became necessary to one’s health and survival. This shift created a drastically new reality: Human lives became dominated by market forces and monetary exchange. One’s life became entirely defined by how well they fit into the global economic system. In the 21st century, technological innovations improved to such an extent that the global capitalist economy may not nee...

The Satyr and the Peasant                                         - Johann Liss -   Description of the Painting The Satyr and the Peasant  was painted by German painter Johann Liss. The painting was done on a fabric canvas and done with oil paint (Hand, 1993, pg. xiii). The most striking part of the painting is the Satyr that dominates the left half of the canvas. Despite this, however, his face is obscured with shadow, keeping his expression a mystery. After the Satyr, the painting guides the viewer to the right. First we see the faces of the peasant mother and child, their expressions sharply contrasting the (possible) expression of the satyr and the surprised/angry expression of the peasant man. The differences of the peasant's expressions is the “c...