FFWD Weekly
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| Books by Gaelle Eizlini THE AGONY OF MAMMON In his latest effort, Lewis Lapham is invited, along with most of the world’s heavy hitters in the field, to attend an exclusive economic summit to worship before the Golden Calf. If you are at all familiar with his work, you’ll know that Lapham is not much of a capitalist sycophant. Nor does he appear to be in the process of converting. Lapham clearly shows that an American with a mind of his own and a subtle touch with vocabulary can not only be dangerous to the high priests of money, but agreeably readable. Editor of the prestigious Harper’s magazine, he is an essayist of rare grace, cutting without being crude or resorting to base nastiness. In The Agony of Mammon, he is carefully guided through the gilded halls of economic prosperity by some of his journalist colleagues. They inform him that as a participant he has access to more important venues than the vulgar press. There he finds, not so much to his surprise as to his chagrin, that the world’s finance ministers are blithely exalting the global marketplace. Chinese businessmen quote the growing number of cellular phones as a measure of their country’s success, the Russians are clearly out of their element, and no one pays attention to the lone union leader who predicts rough times ahead due to the effects of rampant greed. What makes this little volume so worthwhile is the rarity of seeing such a mainstream voice so skeptical of global capitalism and the benefits it is supposedly bringing to us all. Lapham’s tone is discreet, incredulous and a little bemused. He also had the foresight to include a little glossary that will define such terms as profit and the poor in strictly capitalist parlance for those of us more used to the mere general usage. |
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