Lionel Trilling: We Invented Money
on Tuesday, June 7, 2022Lionel Trilling Money Quote saying that even though we created money and make use of it, cash is unpredictable and uncontrolled. Lionel Trilling said:
“We invented money and we use it, yet we cannot understand its laws or control its actions. It has a life of its own” — Lionel Trilling
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In this quote, Lionel Trilling seems to be conveying that while humans created money as a system of exchange, its impacts and dynamics have taken on a complexity that eludes full comprehension or command even by its inventors. Some key points:
- Trilling notes that though people “invented money and use it”, they have not truly mastered understanding “its laws” or behaviors.
- He portrays money as having “a life of its own” that evolves beyond simple human design and control through emergent properties within economic systems.
- The quote implies that money’s effects extend far beyond its transactional functions into psychological, social and political realms that are difficult to model or anticipate.
Overall, Trilling appears to be suggesting that the creation of money was an ingenious human innovation, but its consequences have proven unpredictable and at times ungovernable. Its significance and influence continue growing in unforeseen directions beyond any one group’s intentional management according to this perspective that money has taken on systemic properties greater than any individual actor’s design or directives.
Birthday: July 4, 1905 – Death: November 5, 1975