How empire twisted wealth from shared sustenance into a private idol—and why coherence requires reclaiming it for life in common.
In “What is Happening,” we named the collapse of illusions; in “An Invitation to Face Ourselves,” we called one another into clarity. This reflection continues that arc by confronting one of the deepest distortions at the root of our crisis: the twisting of wealth from a sacred common good into a personal god.
Human beings have always needed meaning. Wealth was never only material; from the earliest hearths where families gathered and shared stories to the massive temples and empires that later rose, it was always symbolic. It carried meaning, binding a people together around what they held sacred. But over time, this meaning was distorted. What began as wealth serving the common good—feeding homes, sustaining kin, strengthening bonds—became a means of exalting individuals and creating gods out of men.
Wealth as Shared Sustenance
In ancient communities, wealth meant survival. A good harvest, a successful hunt, a full storehouse—these were sacred because they sustained life. Sharing was not generosity but necessity: if the home endured, the people endured. Wealth was meaning itself: embodied in bread, water, shelter, and kinship around the hearth. People saw excessive hoarding as dangerous, even deadly, because it threatened the survival of every home.
The Rise of Elites
The growing complexity of societies led to the concentration of wealth among a select few. Palaces replaced homes, temples replaced hearths, and the symbol of shared survival was twisted into the badge of personal power. Leaders, chiefs, and kings claimed that their wealth was divinely sanctioned. The shared meaning of wealth—life in common—was distorted into the glorification of hierarchy. This was the seed of oligarchy: the belief that the sacred abundance of the earth could be claimed and owned by individuals.
Capitalism’s Intensification
Before turning to capitalism, it is important to distinguish between wealth and capital. Wealth refers to life’s provisions—food, shelter, land, tools, and knowledge—that sustain and enrich life. Capital is wealth deliberately concentrated, set aside, or invested for the purpose of generating more wealth. In other words, capital is wealth turned into an engine of accumulation. This distinction matters because capitalism is not simply the presence of wealth but the belief that capital—the accumulation of wealth for its expansion—is the axis of meaning and progress.
Capitalism did not invent this distortion; it inherited it. What capitalism perfected was the machinery of extraction. Wealth was no longer just diverted upward—it was systematically pulled from the earth and the masses to feed accumulation at the top. The illusion of progress masked the reality that meaning had been hollowed out. Homes that once centered on sustenance and community were replaced by markets where survival itself became a commodity. Wealth was no longer sacred; it was idolized.
The Distortion of Sacred Wealth
Here lies the distortion: mistaking personal accumulation for sacred meaning. Wealth was never sacred in itself. It was sacred only insofar as it sustained life and coherence for all. When wealth is worshiped as a personal god, its meaning collapses. It ceases to be life-giving and becomes parasitic. Today’s oligarchs see no obligation to sustain the masses beyond their usefulness. In this, the distortion reaches its terminal point: wealth has lost its meaning, and the earth itself is being bled dry.
Toward a New Understanding
If meaning is to be restored, wealth must be resacralized—not as excess, not as divine right, but as shared provision. Wealth should promote the thriving of life in fullness and moderation. This is not charity; it is coherence. To distort wealth into a personal god is to sever it from meaning itself. To restore wealth to the common good is to recognize again that sacredness begins in the home, where life is sustained together.
This is the thread we must reclaim: wealth as sacred only when it serves life in common. Anything else is distortion.
This reflection forms the third movement in a series with “What is Happening” and “An Invitation to Face Ourselves,” together tracing the collapse of illusion, the call to clarity, and the unmasking of distorted wealth. A fourth reflection will follow, turning from diagnosis into constructive vision: what it means to live in coherence once the distortion is named.