Money, Commodification and the Corrosion of Value: An Examination of the Sacred and Intrinsic Value
When, in the first volume of Capital Karl Marx thunders 'Everything becomes saleable and buyable Not even the bones of saints, and still less are more delicate res sacrosanctae, extra commercium hominum are able to withstand this alchemy',2 he is tapping into a venerable tradition that regards money as destructive or corrosive of the sacred. Money is the oil of the profane machinery of the reproduction of human life and ought to be kept separate from the realm of the sacred. There are some things that ought not be sold because of their sacred nature.