Welcome Nanook, I certainly hope it's not bad form because I do it all
the time. Maybe I'll have a website or book to hock someday too but
until then you will all have to wait in anticipation (or fear). :)
I really only have input on a part of the post, that Greed is defined by
what the society finds to be acceptable behavior. To make it sound less
arbitrary and avoid going down the 'culture of greed' road we should say
in judging greed there are psycho and social dimensions. To touch on
both I think we should ask at what cost to values, ethics and principles
will one pursue their desire. For example I might find it reasonable for
someone in Haiti to keep a surplus if they were able, but to desire an
unreasonable excess at the expense of someone else's having enough would
not be right. Would it be greedy to have ten thousand pounds of food
shipped to my house, keeping one thousand for myself and handing out the
rest to local relief depots? I don't think so. Noone can say what
psychological factors are playing out except by what behaviors the
person exhibits, like their charitable nature or compassion for those
around them. Now if someone has that much food shipped in so they can
feel mighty amongst the starving, I say maybe someone would notice how
fat the guy is getting who eats a 10oz steak in front of the picture
window for each meal. They come and take the food, eat him too, and
nobody feels at a loss.
On 1/17/2011 12:16 PM, TheRealNanook wrote:
I’m new to the group. I hope it’s OK to join the discussion near it’s
starting point.
I think the word greed explains a lot of the tragedy that we see in
society today. We could address that tragedy better if we saw the
contribution that greed was making to it.
My first point is that greed has been known to be a problem for a long
time. It is often listed as the second of the SEVEN DEADLY SINS. Why
this is important is because I believe the Seven Deadly Sins can
explain most of problems in human society due to human psychology. I
spend a lot of time on this in my books if anyone wants to explore
this further.
Second, I think the discussion got off on the wrong foot. We need to
read Webster’s definition more carefully. It says, “more of something
than is NEEDED.” Specifically, this phrasing does not limit greed to
the environment of a single person. In fact, what makes greed, and all
the Seven Deadly Sins, rank so highly as human faults is their SOCIAL
expression in a social context. The first example is a good example to
explore this.
If a person, who lives in an expensive tenement in NYC spends a
million dollars on a painting, it may not be greed. But if the same
person happens to live in one of the few surviving houses in Haiti,
while people are starving to death in the street outside his front
door, then society would label that greed. If the same millionaire, in
Haiti, stockpiled just 2 weeks worth of groceries, an amount that no
one in most of the U.S. would even blink at, while everyone else was
living hand to mouth, society would label that greed.
The point is, this directly contradicts the notion stated in the first
post that, “NOBODY can judge what another person finds important ...”
The whole concept of greed, and the other SINS, is based on its social
implications.
To make the meaning of greed clear, as used in society, Webster’s
definition needs a few more words: a selfish and excessive desire for
more of something than is needed IN THE OPINION OF SOCIETY. And that’s
the stickler!
Look how this point comes into play in the last paragraph of the
post. It says, “if you have
REASONABLE plans for every single
dollar? THAT IS NOT GREED...” The devil is in the word “reasonable”.
And what society means by reasonable is what SOCIETY accepts as
reasonable.
The reason this is so important right now is how it will play out as
the mortgage disaster starts to really unwind. Note well, this
disaster is NOT about houses. It’s about the people thrown into the
street. To date, the banks have thrown the equivalent of 6 Haiti
earthquakes of U.S. adults and children into the street. They will
create the equivalent of another Haiti of homeless people every 3
months in 2011! And what is it that they want? PROFITS!: to get back
to the level of bonuses they got before the crash.
For those interested, you can read more at
http://www.a3society.org/7%20Deadly%20Sins
On Dec 12 2010, 4:55 am, BB47<[email protected]> wrote:
The word “greed” is tossed out so often and it always intrigues me
just what people mean by it. Just what is “greed?” Some people (no
names) toss this word off their fingertips all the time and frankly I
HAVE HAD ENOUGH.
Webster defines this word as…
: a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than
is needed.
Ok, let’s take a more careful look at that definition. Let’s say a
very rich person spends a million dollars on a painting that he just
loves. He thinks this painting is so remarkable, so beautiful, that
he is willing to buy it for a million dollars so he can look at it
every day in his house. Me personally? I would never spend a
million dollars on a painting, but that is just me. That painting, or
ANY painting, is not something I am interested in buying at that
price, even if I was filthy rich. But the things that I buy would
curl your hair as they might seem so “strange” to YOU, but not to me.
Everybody is different, and this is a very important thing to
consider. NOBODY can judge what another person finds important,
interesting, beautiful, desirable, or worthwhile. (Just look at your
hairstyle…smily thingee goes here)
The question is…is that greed? I don’t think so. Is buying anything
that one does not “need” greed? Hell no! you better check your
inventory of your life if that is the case, you would find that every
human on earth is greedy, and therefore the definition is rendered
meaningless. The definition clearly states “an EXCESSIVE desire for
MORE of SOMETHING”
This says to me that greed is only achieved when you already HAVE
“enough” of this particular “thing” and yet you want more anyway. You
want more than you can actually “benefit” from because you already
have “it” THAT is greed. When you “hoard” something for no reason,
and NOT when you simply “want” something that you don’t have. Wanting
something IS NOT GREED. Get that through your fricking head. Wanting
something that is not “needed” is not greed. Wanting something you
already have plenty of is greed.
Which brings us, inevitably, to money. Money can be turned into
ANYTHING, so one cannot say that you have a quantity of this
particular one “thing” that meets the classic definition of greed,
UNTIL YOU CLARIFY IT. It is not “one thing” it is “anything I can
think of” so it must be treated slightly differently. Now, if you
want a billion dollars but your actual, realistic “wants and needs”
are only a million dollars, then you are greedy. But if you have
reasonable plans for every single dollar? THAT IS NOT GREED, THAT IS
PERFECTLY NORMAL GODDAMIT.
