With recent stories about the behavior of bankers in the LIBOR scandal, and debates on when legal tax avoidance becomes morally repugnant, are we not seeing the effects of a rampant materialism that seems to have careered out of control in our society? In the Bible we are told that: "the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil." This is an ancient wisdom that seems to be coming to fruition all around us.

Aristotle made the distinction between essential and therefore laudable expenditure for the daily needs of food, shelter and clothing, and the acquisition of money for acquisition’s sake by profit associated with retail trade. The latter he censured:

"…because the gain in which it results is not naturally made, but is made at the expense of other men. The trade of the petty usurer is hated with most reason: it makes a profit from currency itself, instead of making it from the process which currency was meant to serve. Currency came into existence merely as a means of exchange; usury tries to make it increase."

Then again Augustine saw that the State which looked after only its own interests rather than pursuing a justice for all was no more than an organized band of robbers.

And what happened to the Commandment "Thou shalt not steal"? Why not substitute State with 'bankers' in Augustine's vision, or indeed why only pick on bankers? Sometimes I think that we are all in danger of becoming like that band of robbers - indeed perhaps we are already there. We forget at our peril that we are now profoundly connected as humans across the world, because we often tend to be guilty of a kind of group egotism, loving only our own kind and conveniently forgetting the plight of those who are perhaps less fortunate than ourselves, and remote from our own sheltered existences.

In my first book, Healing… I devoted a chapter to "The Hope of a Healed Economy: In Pursuit of Social Justice," writing of the dangers ahead, drawing on the inspiration we can find in ancient wisdoms, and looking at our own individual responsibilities and choices. Because we all need to make a connection between the way we use money and our moral beliefs. I don’t like to say now that "I told you so," but I will! 

Aristotle (1998) Politics, translated by Ernest Barker, revised R.F. Stalley, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1.9 1258a 35 p. 30.

Simon Bolivar, El Sistema, Sistema Scotland and the London 2012 Festival.

Tonight the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra kicks off the London 2012 Festival in the shadow of Stirling Castle, joined by local children from Sistema Scotland. By way of introduction and background to this music phenomenon, read on...

Art and the young I am told that Venezuela is a stunning country, with its Andean peaks, its Caribbean coastline, its tranquil offshore islands, its wetlands teeming with life, the steamy Amazon and its rolling savanna towered over by the flat-topped mountains called tepuis. But perhaps it has more than its fair share of unemployment, slums, poverty and a youth in need of a focus away from the temptations of crime and drugs. Venezuelan Jose Antonia Abreo is a trained economist. He is also a talented pianist and a visionary activist. In 1975 he founded an educational system for the youth of Venezuela based on the teaching of music as a basis for intellectual growth. This innovative idea was to use music as the focus of education, provide children with free musical instruments and teach them to play in an orchestra. Abreo saw this as a way to give children of all ages a meaningful purpose and self esteem, a means for social and intellectual improvement that would rescue them from the harmful alternatives around them in their otherwise deprived lives. His organization is now known as El Sistema. The vision and energy of this one man has improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of deprived children. The flagship orchestra of El Sistema, the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, has played in Carnegie Hall, at the London Proms and elsewhere, always to widespread acclaim. The idea has been so successful that it is finding outlets across the world, for example in other Latin American countries, in Spain and across the United States. The concept is also being developed in England and in Stirling, Scotland, where youth disaffection is seen to be a real problem. In his acceptance speech for the B'nai B'rith Human Rights Award in 2008, Abreu succinctly summarized the goal of El Sistema and of his life's work by saying; ‘In the struggle for Human Rights, let us vigorously incorporate children’s sublime right to music, in whose bosom shines Beingness in its splendor and its ineffable mystery. Let us reveal to our children the beauty of music and music shall reveal to our children the beauty of life.’ It seems so obvious to remind ourselves yet again that our children and our youth are our future. How many of us outside the realms of school and family, however, spend any time by example or action to encourage their positive and wholesome development through the medium of music?

Excerpt from Healing This Wounded Earth © Eleanor Stoneham 2011