Is the NY Stock Exchange a World Pole??

Abigail Reed
3/21/19

When giving my presentation of chapters seven and eight of the Ecology of Eden I asked the question if anyone could think of a world pole in the United States. According to Eisenburg a world pole offers a source of life. For example, in this book the Canaanites world pole was a mountain and the Mesopotamians world pole was the tower of babel. Both offering a source of life in two difference ways, one being of nature and wilderness and the other of the city and civilizations built by people. I couldn't think of any natural or wilderness world poles in the United States but a classmate offered up the suggestion of the New York Stock Exchange being a world pole in the US. This idea got me thinking of a different way to give and receive life and energy compared to that of the ancient civilizations in the near east. I feel that the stock exchange is a good example of a world pole here in the US because there is a way to see how life can feed and reproduce itself here. Much of the US is built off of this give and take of money, which controls most if not all things in America. For example, when a stock is bought it is giving the stock to one company and the money to the other therefore giving life to both and maintaining a balance. Though this is a capitalistic way of looking at the old ideal of a world pole I think it works here because there is a reproduction of energy and life through the medium of money and stocks.

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