Giving money away

Published: Sun, 02/14/21

I have a collection of African spears and bow which came from my father’s old scout troop, the 6th Hornsey, in North London. The story goes that one of the original scout masters had served in South Africa, perhaps in the Boer war, and had brought the weapons back as souvenirs. Somehow these items found their way to the Scout hall an my father remembered playing with them as a child. I guess there was a different attitude to health and safety in those days. When the hall was cleared about 25 years ago, these curios found their way home with my father rather than see them thrown into a skip. They are now in my study.

My father grew up in Hornsey and he and his brothers were all members of the scouts from cubs onwards. Later in life my father served as the troop treasurer until the organisation folded about 25years ago. The 6th Hornsey owned its own premises throughout most of the 20th century and the three story building was quite a valuable piece of real estate. The Scout movement continues but some troops have had to close for various reasons. My father put it down to lack of people willing and able to commit themselves as leaders. Whatever the reason scouting ceased at that particular venue and the building was sold. As the treasurer my father had the responsibility of disbursing the funds for the benefit of scouting in the North London district as a whole. Spending money might sound simple enough but my father found it to be quite a challenging responsibility.

Obviously each Scout troop in the area was interested in claiming their ‘fair share’ of the available money. An easy way to get rid of the money might have been to just give an equal grant to each eligible troop. However, that might have disrupted the financial arrangements of the different troops in different ways, some might have given up on fund raising for a year and had financial problems later, another may have just wasted the money for the sake of spending it. This was a one off chance to do some real good for scouting in North London, but it had to be done right. So, different troops were invited to apply for funding for projects which would have a genuine long term benefit to their members. As I recall, a new ablution block was built at the district camping ground, one troop was able to buy some canoes, another replaced their mini bus and so on.

It may not sound like a big deal, but my father and his associates who managed the disbursement process were very keen that this particular windfall only did good for local scouting rather than harming the organisation. The rune rhyme for Fe comes to mind. ‘Money causes strife amongst kinsmen, the wolf grows up in the woods.’ My father certainly saw scouting as a big family, it certainly was for him and his brothers, and the last thing he wanted to cause strife by distributing money unwisely. In April 1999 the North London Scout district awarded a medal to my father in recognition of his services, I have it on my desk now.

The episode described above came back to me when I was thinking about the subject of money and how the world is affected by the use of wealth. There are two passages in the New Testament, Matthew 6 v24 and Luke 16 v13 which the King James Bible translates as ‘you cannot serve God and mammon.’. More recently, such as in the New International Version, the same passage is now written as ‘you cannot serve God and money’. I think the King James version had it right, talking of serving money makes as much sense as talking about serving hammers, or spades. Money is just a tool of exchange and management of value. Money, in and of itself, is as morally neutral as any other infrastructure or equipment human beings might build or own. It is how money is used and the effect that it has which matters. Mammon is the use of wealth for selfish, and ultimately destructive, ends. Mammon may be hard to define in absolute terms but, perhaps like
pornography, you recognise it when you see it. Mammon is when those who wish to invest money are willing to get their return by the exploitation of others rather then through fair exchange. The choice of where and how to spend, invest, or earn, your money should be the basis for your ethical decision making. Mammon will always seek to create situations where such vital decisions are made for us by creating monopolies for instance. Mammon is the love of money as an insatiable parasite which will eventually kill it’s host.

Words are powerful and mammon is a term which alerts us to the danger our world is in. (Which might make you wonder why the word was taken out of the bible?) Those who serve mammon can never be satisfied until they own and control everything. Mammon always seeks to consume the world and has been for thousands of years. Mammon is never easy to fight, but the first stage of resistance is to know your enemy’s name. The second stage is simply deciding which side you are on.

Regards

Graham

PS If any of the above rings true with you I would recommend reading this article by Paul Craig Roberts who knows a lot more about economics than I do https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2021/02/10/does-the-us-still-have-an-economy/

regards

PPS This article describes Venezuala’s efforts to feed its own people. The forces of mammon are not happy about it http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/56318.htm