Lewis Lapham: Financing Civilization
on Wednesday, September 7, 2011Lewis H. Lapham Money Quotation saying our infrastructure requires understanding the financing of the heart and the core of our society. Lewis H. Lapham said:
“Money ranks as one of the primary materials with which mankind builds the architecture of civilization” — Lewis H Lapham
In this quote, Lewis Lapham is highlighting the important role that money plays in building human civilization and society. He refers to money as a “primary material” on par with other basic building blocks like wood, stone, steel, etc. that are used to literally and figuratively construct the world we inhabit.
Lapham’s point is that while money itself may be a human invention or abstraction, it has become a fundamental tool and resource that shapes everything from infrastructure and institutions to culture and social organization.
By enabling trade, specialization and complex economic interactions, money acts as a kind of social and economic glue that holds civilization together. So in short, Lapham is emphasizing money’s central importance as a building block of human communities and progress.