Venal
venal: "open to corrupt influences and especially bribery" Merriam-Webster Online
Basically a venal person is someone who is willing to do unscrupulous things for money. I don't know the whole story of how the word "venal" came to be, but I do know that, in Latin, a venalicius was someone who sold slaves, who, from a modern-day viewpoint, would indeed be venal. But, back in Ancient Rome, it was probably absolutely normal. Of course, in Ancient Rome, all the men memorized the Iliad and the Odyssey and in modern times, few people even know what the Iliad is about, apart from the terribly inaccurate Wolfgang Petersen movie.
But the question is, where does money come from and when is a person venal? Are Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling of Enron venal? I think this is a question of perspective and of ethics, which along with the Iliad, is rarely ever studied by the average Joe. But, above all, this pertains to the very idea of money? What is money?
That last question was answered in Atlas Shrugged, by philosopher Ayn Rand. In the middle of the book somewhere, the character Francisco D'Anconia goes into the worth of money and how, in American English, money is "made". Not "earned", or "obtained through stealth and trickery", or "deserved", but made. It's a simple lexical choice that makes all the difference in the world. It's not the whole of Francisco's speech by far, nor does the idea encompass the whole idea of money, but it does give an inkling to the origin of money. For a better idea, I'll have to refer you to Atlas Shrugged. But venality is something hard to define and yet seemingly so prevalent in a weary world.
Basically a venal person is someone who is willing to do unscrupulous things for money. I don't know the whole story of how the word "venal" came to be, but I do know that, in Latin, a venalicius was someone who sold slaves, who, from a modern-day viewpoint, would indeed be venal. But, back in Ancient Rome, it was probably absolutely normal. Of course, in Ancient Rome, all the men memorized the Iliad and the Odyssey and in modern times, few people even know what the Iliad is about, apart from the terribly inaccurate Wolfgang Petersen movie.
But the question is, where does money come from and when is a person venal? Are Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling of Enron venal? I think this is a question of perspective and of ethics, which along with the Iliad, is rarely ever studied by the average Joe. But, above all, this pertains to the very idea of money? What is money?
That last question was answered in Atlas Shrugged, by philosopher Ayn Rand. In the middle of the book somewhere, the character Francisco D'Anconia goes into the worth of money and how, in American English, money is "made". Not "earned", or "obtained through stealth and trickery", or "deserved", but made. It's a simple lexical choice that makes all the difference in the world. It's not the whole of Francisco's speech by far, nor does the idea encompass the whole idea of money, but it does give an inkling to the origin of money. For a better idea, I'll have to refer you to Atlas Shrugged. But venality is something hard to define and yet seemingly so prevalent in a weary world.
posted by Kay at 12:17 PM
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