On Greed
Avarice is, in reality, the deadliest sin of all. Theologians tend to say that pride is the deadliest. They are wrong. Pride only affects oneself and the immediate surroundings. When one falls from hubris, they fall alone. Greed on the other hand, is far-reaching. It can extend to infinite space and force it to have bounds. Greed affects everyone, even if they do not know it. Greed creates in imbalance in wealth, so what happens is that someone acquires something from someone else. In doing so, the victim is impoverished while the culprit gains power. People say that the world revolves around money, and that is partially true. However it is not money that is the power, but the need for it that is the driving force of capitalism. Money is merely a material symbol for greed. It only has value if one believes that it does. The ideology of the this concept is the passion of greed.
It is the feeling of "want" that is the basis of greed. When
someone wants something, they do not really need it for their survival. The want
is not real because nothing bad would happen if it did not exist at all. The
mind creates the want into a need by imagining the benefits of the desired
object. These so-called benefits are nothing other than self-indulging
pleasures. One can live without these benefits, but they think that without it,
they cannot be satisfied.
For example, I want to own an Acura NSX that costs over
$90,000. But what use is it? Can I not drive my existing Honda Civic and
still get from point A to point B? No, I got to have that V6 V-TEC 292 hp
aluminum supercar, otherwise I will not be satisfied. If I had an NSX, I would
look cool and fast. On the other hand, these are not practical gains from owning
the car. All these "benefits" I imagine are benefits to my state of
mind, I will gain nothing physical to myself from them.
The mind will trick the person into believing that these benefits are worth
obtaining because they are ruled by their emotions, which is how all the deadly
sins operate.
If one is still uncertain at the dangers of greed, then consider this: why does poverty exist in this country? Conservatives say that the people are poor because they do not work hard and they are not educated enough to make money. Moderates say they are just unfortunate people. Liberals say that they are poor because the wealth is not distributed evenly. The latter argument is correct. If you think about it, if wealth was distributed more evenly, poverty would cease to exist. It is just that the people want to keep others poor in order to stay rich. For wealth is relative: a rich person has more money than a poor person. Rich people acquire their huge income by exploiting the poor. Money goes from the poor to the rich. This is how the U.S. economy works. Even the rich get subsidies from the government funded by the lower class's tax dollars. With the existence of the poor, it creates interminable amounts of suffering. Poor people must struggle to stay alive or they will die. They do not get help because the wealthy refuse to help them. Occasionally, they make a donation to a charity. But the donation does not do anything to help the existing condition the poor remain in. They donate not for the sake of helping others, but for the sake of making others believe that they are helping others while earning a generous tax break. They are in it for themselves. If the wealthy really wanted to help the poor, they would accept earning a lower income to match the middle-class. But they do not, for they are greedy. And so poverty will never be solved no matter how many donations are made as long as greed exists.
Love conquers all, but greed conquers love.
09.19.2002