THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

Matters of belief and social convention can be powerful and
practically indestructible. History abounds in examples of people
who have chosen torture and death rather than change their beliefs.
We also recognize that someone can choose to continue believing
something, even when faced with ample evidence to the contrary. So
belief has a formidable presence in the human psyche
A belief about a belief, however, is a different animal altogether. It
is a Fragile and ephemeral thing. Perhaps nothing can shake my
belief, but my belief about your belief can be eviscerated by a rumor,
a mere hunch, a feeling. Moreover, a chain of belief about a belief is
only as strong as its weakest link. If I think that someone on the other
side of the world has stopped believing in the Mexican peso, the Thai
baht, or the Russian rouble, then I have to fear that his neighbors may
stop believing. As a result the whole house of cards may fall down, as
it did for Mexico in December 1994, for Thailand in late 1997, or for
Russia in August 1998.
In brief, the game of money, exactly like the Ancient Greek oracles,
is a confidence game. Whenever the emperor has no clothes (i.e.
whenever a 'crisis of confidence' looms), those in the know hope that
no guileless child will make an improper remark. Under such
circumstances, a facade of regal confidence, mystery, decorum, and
ritual serves to ensure that a long and fragile chain of beliefs will
hold.
Why money is not a thing
We should now dissipate a key illusion in the magic about money:
money is not a thing.
For most of history, money has definitely appeared to be a thing, in
fact, an incredible variety of things (see sidebar). Without even