The root of all evil?

It has always annoyed me when people misquote that. It is, of course, the LOVE of money which is denounced in the Bible; money can be useful, but the love of it can definitely eat into our hearts and lives and gradually destroy us as spiritual beings.

I'm not in any way belittling the tremendous amount of suffering the Credit Crunch is bringing in its wake, and I am certainly not suggesting that all those affected 'deserve' their misery, or that they had an unhealthy attitude to money. All sorts of people are caught up in this - all of us, in fact.

However, ever since finances began to dominate the media, I have found myself unable to shake a sneaking feeling that this is ultimately going to be Good For Us as a society. I've never seen money as 'real' and I don't think it will be a bad thing if we are forced to rethink what we truly value in life.

When did we start measuring our success in terms of money? Who decided that you were a better person if you could buy more things? At what point did the buzz of buying a new pair of shoes become more enjoyable than having a cup of tea with a friend? Why do so many people prefer to go out and spend money, rather than spend time dealing with possibly uncomfortable emotions?

If you are an 'emotional eater' you get visibly fat eventually. However, there has been no visible consequence of emotional spending until now. Sure, individuals have got into huge debt - but that's been okay, hasn't it? Because there has always been someone around to literally cash in on their misery and make a quick buck off the back of it. And anyway - when everyone's in debt, it's no big deal. is it?

Well - it's Crunch time. Credit Crunch time, to be precise. Those who have gorged on other's debts are now succumbing to all the side effects of moral obesity. Some long-established financial institutions are dying of heartlessness. Others find themselves too weighed down by their own debts to stand on the High Street, and are gasping for the breath of renewed funds which are never going to arrive.

As billions of pounds disappear electronically from our crashing financial systems, I'm left with a question to which I've never had a satisfactory answer.

What IS money? It's not really there, is it? Each month my employer sends a list of figures out to various banks, who then inform their clients that they now have X amount of 'money' in their account.

When I go shoppping, I give a plastic card to the cashier, which enables a few of those numbers to appear on someone else's screen and disappear from my account. I rarely see actual money, though I do make a point of seeing a few pounds of it every week, just to make myself feel slightly less insane for being part of this bizarre system.

When I was a teenager and attending an Evangelical Church, there was much muttering about the AntiChrist and the Last Days. (Incidentally watch out for those Fundies, Obama, cos I seem to remember that bringing about World Peace is a No-no. Make sure you leave a few trouble spots!)

We were warned that the Mark of the Beast would probably be a tattooed barcode on our arms, which we would have to show in order to buy food. Persecution would come in the form of Christians (who would refuse to have the Mark of Satan, obviously) being unable to buy food, clothing or anything else they needed, because money would no longer exist.

Oh, how we laughed. We knew technology like that wouldn't be possible for at least another 150 years - and anyway, WHY would anybody want to deal with money that way?

I believe this is the very system being investigated now. I imagine there would be lots of security issues, and I'm sure I'm not the only person who wouldn't fancy a tattoo for any reasons, but still - those Evos had a point.

Except they missed the fact that, as they sat in their beautifully-carpetted churches, and went home to host their gourmet meals (Prawn Cocktail! Wow!) whilst millions carried on their daily business of starving to death, the West had already sold its soul and was blissfully unaware that, as in every good fable, Payback time was on its way. We survived a few 'recessions' - and grew even more confident that we could survive anything.

This time, I'm not so sure.

I think we may just have to face up to the global damage we have done with years of selfishness and greed. We will definitely have to redefine our values. It may even be that we spend less money on things, and more time with people.

My dream is that as all this sorry story unfolds, we will learn to gauge wealth by contentment, not material riches. Compare the looks on the faces of our spoilt, overfed, bored-with-life children with those of hungry children in an African village welcoming visitors.

Who is richer?