ROGUE DEMOCRACY AND THE HIDDEN GODcontrast to traditional religions, the capitalist cult abolishes the distinction between
‘‘weekday’’ and ‘‘holiday.’’ Instead, the capitalist cult isconstant: it is celebrated all the
time; it is ‘‘permanent,’’ thus turning time into a homogeneous medium of duration at
the same time that it consumes all the energies of those who practice it. And finally, in
sharp contrast to the religions of the Book, ‘‘capitalism is presumably the first case of a
cult that is not expiatory but rather culpabilizing [verschuldend].’’^22 The German word
that Benjamin uses and that is translated here as ‘‘culpabilizing’’—verschuldend—has, as
he himself notes, a ‘‘demonic ambiguity,’’ since it signifies bothguiltanddebt.^23 This does
not mean that the expiatory perspective is absent from this religion—far from it—but
rather that its practice involves not the ‘‘reformation of being but its ‘‘demolition [Zertru ̈m-
merung].’’ What is thus celebrated without interruption or respite in the capitalist cult is
a universalization of indebtedness that knows no bounds. Indeed, ‘‘God himself [Gott
selbst] is included in this debt and guilt.’’ God himself—God as the name of a certain
Self—‘‘is not dead’’ but ‘‘has been implicated [einbezogen] in human destiny.’’ The result,
however, of such ‘‘implication’’ is that that God can be worshiped by the capitalist cult
only by being kept secret (verheimlicht): ‘‘The cult is celebrated before an unripe and
immature deity [einer ungereiften Gottheit]; every representation, every thought of it vio-
lates the secret of its maturity [Reife].’’
The indebted deity ripens, but unlike a bond or a tree never reaches full maturity,
not, at least, in the capitalist cult-religion. Lacking maturity, it cannot provide thereturn
that alone would justify the faith, the credit and credibility, extended to him. Instead, that
debt (and guilt) only accumulate. And so this unripe deity of debt and guilt must be
hidden in order to provide a suitable object of worship for the capitalist cult. It is hidden,
however, not simply by being withheld from view but by being represented by something
else. By what else? It is here that a short note, written by Benjamin probably more to
himself than to anyone else, a note for future research, points toward what might possibly
constitute a missing link in our previous discussion of Derrida’s roguish reading of de-
mocracy to come, not to mention some of the more recent vicissitudes of democracy in
America.
Here, then, is the note that Benjamin telegraphs to himself:
Capitalism developed itself in the West parasitically out of Christianity... so that in
the end [the] history [of Christianity] is in essence that of its parasite, capitalism.
Comparison between the pictures of saints of different religions on the one hand,
and the banknotes of different states on the other. The spirit, that speaks out of the
ornamentality of the banknotes.
Methodologically what should be investigated first are the (various) connections
money establishes with myth during the course of history until it could extract so
many mythical elements from Christianity that it could constitute its own myth.^24PAGE 397397.................16224$ CH20 10-13-06 12:35:59 PS