MONEY AND INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY 227
ore
ion
of
ter-
se.
atic
1Ce,
in-
5b-
de-
ion
‘fic
de-
Jsl-
5 1t
sto
ex-
ing
\CO-
t of
~ific
SOT.
imi-
lom
also
hit
and
a SO
our
:nd-
29ANS
of our possessions. They mean an extension of the ego, an
enlargement of the sphere of the individuality. An external
object would be without significance if it could not obtain
value, and the ego would be a point without extension if
it could not express itself in external objects.
One may say that the acquisition of property means the
growth of the individuality beyond the individual. If lib-
erty means a state in which the will can realize itself un-
hampered, an increase in possession will mean an increase
in liberty. But this liberty is restricted by the character-
istics and the properties of the objects possessed. Our will
is usually sufficiently adapted to life’s conditions not to
demand from objects what they cannot perform and not
to consider that limitation as a positive restraint, but it
would be possible, none the less, to arrange objects in a
series according to the amount of obstruction which they
place in the way of the expression of our will. The last item
of that series would again be money. It lacks all structure of
its own and adapts itself immediately to any demand or
purpose. The objects which stand behind it may exert limi-
tations; money itself adapts itself immediately to our will.
But because of its lack of structure it is also the most
unadapted object. Because we possess it so completely,
we cannot obtain any more from it than possession. Only
in so far as an object is something in itself can it be some-
thing for us; only in limiting our freedom can it allow an
expression of our freedom. This logical opposition reaches
a maximum tension in money. It is more for us than any
other object because it belongs to us without reservation,
and it is less for us than any other object because it lacks
any content which can be actually possessed apart from
the mere form of possession as such. We possess it more
completely than any other object, but we possess in it less
than in any other object.
