By Livy-Elcon Emereonye
Money is not just a medium of exchange; it is a metaphysical force masquerading as paper and numbers. It behaves like a wave—unpredictable, overwhelming, decisive. It crashes into human lives, reshaping destinies, redrawing hierarchies, and redistributing relevance with ruthless efficiency. Without it, a great man fades into invisibility; with it, a monkey becomes a darling dipped in honey. This is not metaphorical exaggeration. It is the brutal arithmetic of modern existence.
We live in an age where money has completed its silent coup. It no longer merely supports power; it is power. It does not ask permission to rule; it assumes the throne by default. Titles bow before it. Morality negotiates with it. Intelligence competes poorly against it. In today’s world, poverty is not just economic deprivation—it is social erasure. To lack money is to be unheard, unseen, and easily dismissed, no matter the content of your mind or the weight of your character.
History once pretended that greatness preceded wealth. Today, wealth manufactures greatness. A person is no longer judged by the depth of thought, contribution to society, or integrity of conduct, but by net worth, lifestyle optics, and purchasing power. The question is no longer “What does he know?” but “What does he have?” No longer “What has she built?” but “What can she afford?” In this cruel inversion, wisdom starves quietly while noise eats lavishly.
Money is worshipped, not metaphorically, but ritually. People wake up thinking about it, sleep calculating it, sacrifice relationships for it, and justify crimes in its name. The temples are no longer churches, mosques, or shrines alone; they are banks, trading floors, political offices, and social media platforms where affluence is paraded like divine favor. The altar call is not repentance but acquisition. The sacrament is not virtue but visibility. And the proof of righteousness is not character but cash flow.
This is why many do not merely love money; they obey it. They abandon conscience when money whistles. They rationalize betrayal when money beckons. They turn principles into luxuries they can no longer afford. The frightening truth is that money has become the final arbiter of morality. Right is what pays. Wrong is what fails to monetize. Justice is negotiable. Truth is flexible. Integrity is optional.
Observe how quickly society forgives corruption when the corrupt are wealthy. Let a poor man steal a loaf of bread, and he is branded a criminal. Let a rich man loot billions, and he is called “smart,” “connected,” or “politically exposed.” Let a poor man speak truth, and he is ignored. Let a rich fool speak nonsense, and it becomes policy, trend, or ideology. This is not coincidence; it is the logic of money-worship in action.
Money does not just buy comfort; it buys narrative control. It determines who is celebrated and who is forgotten. It edits history in real time. With enough money, failure is rebranded as “experience,” incompetence as “confidence,” and mediocrity as “influence.” Meanwhile, brilliance without capital is treated like an orphan—unhoused, unsupported, and ultimately silenced.
Yet money itself is not evil. This is the hypocrisy of shallow moralists who curse wealth while secretly craving it. Money is neutral. It has no ethics, no ideology, no soul. It is a magnifier. It amplifies whatever already lives within the person who holds it. In the hands of the visionary, it becomes a bridge to progress. In the grip of the hollow, it becomes a weapon of mass distraction. Money does not corrupt; it reveals.
The tragedy, therefore, is not money’s power, but humanity’s submission. We handed it authority it never asked for. We allowed it to define success, masculinity, femininity, intelligence, and even spirituality. We permitted it to decide who deserves respect and who deserves contempt. We allowed a tool to become a tyrant.
This surrender has consequences. Societies organized solely around money inevitably rot from within. When profit replaces purpose, exploitation becomes strategy. When wealth becomes identity, empathy becomes weakness. When success is measured only by accumulation, nothing is sacred—not family, not community, not the future. Everything becomes transactional. Everyone becomes a potential asset or liability.
This is why people can now “do anything” for money. Lie for it. Kill for it. Sleep with anyone for it. Betray anyone for it. Silence themselves for it. The phrase “at all costs” is no longer rhetorical—it is operational. And the cost is often human dignity. The cost is mental health. The cost is social trust. The cost is generational stability.
Ironically, the same society that worships money also suffers from chronic dissatisfaction. No amount is ever enough, because money cannot fill the vacuum it creates. It promises security but breeds anxiety. It promises freedom but produces dependence. It promises happiness but delivers comparison. The more people have, the more they fear losing. The more they acquire, the more hollow the victory feels.
And so the wave continues—lifting some, crushing others, indifferent to merit. Fate is no longer forged primarily by discipline, talent, or service, but by access. Status is no longer earned but displayed. The social ladder is greased with cash, and those without it are told to “work harder” in a system already rigged against them.
Yet there remains a harder, wiser path. Not the romantic rejection of money, nor the blind worship of it, but mastery over it. To treat money as a servant, not a god. To insist that wealth answers to values, not the other way around. To build capacity before consumption, purpose before profit, meaning before margin.
A society that remembers how to measure greatness beyond money is not poor—it is rich in the deepest sense. A society that honors character alongside capital is not naïve—it is sustainable. Until then, we will continue to crown monkeys and bury giants, to perfume emptiness and starve substance, to confuse price with worth and noise with value.
While money and the things it can buy bring sweetness to life, some individuals have experienced both premature and miserable deaths due to it. Money has driven individuals to commit atrocious acts, and this trend will continue.
Money will remain a wave. The question is whether we will learn to surf it with wisdom—or keep drowning in our own worship.
Whatever the case, with or without money, we will die at the appointed time, and when we die, regardless of our exploits and achievements, we will be buried with nothing – and few years after our exist our monuments and memorials will attract mods and rot away, proving that life is indeed nothing and nothing counts!
