Having lots of money can be like a drug. It can make you feel powerful and giddy. It can convince you that everything's going
to be okay. Years ago they asked the great fighter Joe Louis what he thought about money, and he said, "I don't like money very much, but it calms my nerves." Money makes us unjustifiably feel that we're better and more important than we really are. When money can make you feel humble, then I think it's really useful. But if it fattens your ego, which it often does, then look out.
That way lies madness. That's what all the Greek tragedies are about -- hubris -- and that's part of the problem with money. It is greatness, it is power, it is beauty. Money is about love and relationships. It has a wonderful power to bring people together as well as tear them apart. You can't escape money. If you run from it, it will chase you and catch you. Even Thoreau today would need a real estate agent to help him buy the cabin at Walden Pond.
If we don't
understand our
relationship to money in this culture, then I think we're doomed. If you don't know how you are toward money and really understand that relationship, you simply don't know yourself. Period.