In Islamic literature I have read that a "Jinn" is an evil spirit that distorts reality and that Satan is the greatest Jinn of all in that he denies the true nature of reality totally. A non-subscribing minister friend of mine once described the basic theology of a non-subscriber as being contained in the statement "one God, no devil, 20 shillings to the pound."
That goodness actually exists and that evil is only the absence of goodness is a common philosophical position. My initial reaction to the third part of the proposition: "20 shillings to the pound" involved me visualising the morally upright non-subscriber being honest in his/her money dealings with others. But later it struck me that it was a statement describing the true value of money. A pound is worth, in fact, 20 shillings but no more. The old hippie who claimed that "money didn't matter" was, of course, an idiot. It does matter. Everyone requires food, shelter and a modicum of luxury and in most societies this requires the use of money. The non-subscribing position on money asserts that money is valuable but that there are limits to its value. I have known well off people who genuinely seemed to believe that reality itself was created solely by the interaction between the imagination and money.
Two recent movies involved stories of people earning something like 100 million dollars as a result of some activity of dubious legality. And they lived happily after? In many countries a lotto win involves this sort of figure. While the dividing line between expensive, but genuinely wholesome, tastes and decadence and debauchery is within the hearts of each of us and cannot be easily ascertained simply by examining anyone's bank balance, I assert that few in Western society, the "America" of the Islamic fundamentalists, actually need more wealth than they have right now. Years ago I attended a Presbyterian service during which a Methodist minister preached. He remarked that he once asked a rich businessman "how much money does one actually need?" "Just a little more" was the rich man's answer. An old friend of mine often remarks on the futility of materialism with the statement "one can only sleep in one bed." Of course spending the absolute minimum on bedding may not be the best idea but surely the law of diminishing returns will begin to kick in long before one arrives at the most expensive bedding on earth.
The words "Western" and "materialist" frequently occur together. The Western mindset regards it appropriate to seek to manipulate the external environment to its liking. Eastern culture regards it as appropriate to seek to adjust ones mind not the external world. A prayer I sometimes recite goes "true, strong, loving God teach me to see things as they really are....." The renowned political philosopher Robert Nozick argues for libertarian anarchy on the basis that taxation of any kind amounts to forced labour and is therefore immoral. This is his principled stance. However he admits that law and order must be enforced. So he argues for a "night-watchman" state requiring minimal taxation. But what laws do the police enforce? How are these laws made? Are there courts? Either there is anarchy or there is infrastructure and the question as to exactly how much or how little infrastructure is to be put in place is inescapable. Nozick's principled stance for the abolition of taxation becomes a vague argument/opinion that lower taxation is best; an argument of little philosophical rigour or merit. Could it be that Nozick's prominent position in academic circles is due not so much to the strength of his argument as to the fact that it seeks to justify putting money into rich peoples pockets? If one throws enough right wing political philosophy "mud" at the academic community some will be bound to stick. And this political mindset will trickle down to the world of real politics. Truth alone rarely attracts corporate funding.
The truth, "Pravda", in the USSR was any old nonsense the Party wanted the populace to believe for the good of the Party. But in the West, yesterday and today, the truth is distorted by capital for capital's own ends by very similar or, at the very least, somewhat analogous processes. This can happen at the level of the individual or at the level of society as a whole.
It is the duty of religious believers/practitioners to live life to the full even if life does end in death. In Eastern religious thought salvation is regarded as being a function of being genuinely in touch with reality.
Money is a good tool but a bad master. It is an impersonal agent but it seeks, automatically, to dupe one as to the limits of its uses. It can be used to buy things, expensive things perhaps, in shops. But it might be argued that the "goal" of the "good" capitalist is infinite self-deception brought about by gargantuan spending power; a phoney nirvana. Many religions and philosophical systems would not so much regard this state as deserving of hell but that it actually is hell itself. As my non-subscriber friend might have put it the euro contains 100 cents. It does not contain a gateway to paradise; or if it does it is only a gateway to a fools paradise.

Brendan Burke. MA(Phil). March 2006.