Passing Through Wealth

Last winter, I read an ethnography of the French upper class' way of life. One thing that struck me is that the people interviewed all had this same ethos of passing through their family's wealth. They were born into it, but they did not feel like it belonged to them. Ironically, they were quite humble about the whole thing. They saw it as their responsibility to transmit that heritage.

Then I reflected about how the Catholic Church, in France at least, functions a bit along the same lines. It's wealth does not belong to anyone, members of the church just pass through it and perpetuate it. The colleges at Cambridge and Oxford seem to have this ethos too. Instiututional wealth is something that you inherit and that you pass on. You don't feel like you own it.

Although of course, in material terms they do own it, and they preserve this capital through the help of exploitative structures. But they're humble about it. They're grateful for it. They feel bound by duty to preserve it.

So, in a way, the upper class can be regarded as a parody of the land of Israel. There is nothing wrong with this ethos of preserving a common heritage. Just that this heritage is the broader land in which we live, and that the heirs are all the children of God.

As a political scientist doing research on the future of our "welfare state" heritage in the West, I'm mightily challenged by this as well...