Such is the brutalization of commercial ethics in this country that no one can feel anything more delicate than the velvet touch of a soft buck.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on how commercial ethics have become corrupted, valuing money above all else.
Raymond Chandler's quote critiques the moral decay within commercial practices, suggesting that the relentless pursuit of wealth has made it difficult for individuals to appreciate finer, more sensitive values in life. The 'velvet touch of a soft buck' symbolizes the appealing yet superficial nature of money, which can desensitize people to deeper ethical considerations and emotional truths.
In practice
This quote is a great addition to an article discussing the impact of consumer culture on ethics.
Undoubtedly the stories about them [hard-boiled detectives] had a fantastic element. Such things happened, but not so rapidly, nor to so close-knit a group of people, nor within so narrow a frame of logic. This was inevitable because the demand was for constant action; if you stopped to think you were lost. When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.
There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.
Organized crime is the dirty side of the sharp dollar.
When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.
The flood of print has turned reading into a process of gulping rather than savoring.
If my books had been any worse, I should not have been invited to Hollywood, and if they had been any better, I should not have come.
I'm so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.
Remember, if you have not known sadness together with happiness you have not known anything yet. Then your happiness is superficial; your sadness is also superficial. Then you have been living on the surface; then you have known only the waves; you have not known the depth of the ocean that you are.
Deep down, there is in the substance of the cosmos a primordial disposition, sui generis, for self-arrangement and self-involution.
Capital punishment, like the rest of the criminal justice system, is a government program, so skepticism is in order.
We imagined that the mildness of our government and the wishes of the people were so correspondent that we were not as other nations, requiring brutal force to support the laws.
Anti-intellectualism has long been the anti-Semitism of the businessman.
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