Genius of Money, ch. 6

This chapter deals with the presence of distinct and often conflicting values in society and business. Bloom describes a Renaissance painting in which material and spiritual values appear to be competing in many ways, some of them very subtle. He describes these conflicting values as "polarities," and likens their presence in the painting (and implications about the society of the painting's provenance) to similar conflicting values in his own life. The conflict, as well as the balance, between material and spiritual values is as strong in today's society as it was in the time that the portrait was made, although many aspects of the values have switched over time.