I want more.
More.
More.
More.
More.
More.
Greed. It’s the human instinct that applies to money, power, sex, red wine and meth. Greed has lived at the core of humanity and human societies since we started counting time. And as it is with most things about being human, the more we can understand greed, the better equipped me are to make the right choices around it.
We all have our own judgements about greed. When we judge the greed of others it’s usually negative but when we judge our own greed it’s usually positive. So the measurement of greed is really a math problem whose solution answers the question “how much”. How much greed is too little? How much greed is too much? How much is just right? The answer to the question of how “much” applies equally to greed as it does to sex, power, and money. And maybe red wine and meth too.
Greed is the politics of irony and politics is the irony of greed. Some politicians believe in the act of redistribution – the “Robin Hood Effect” if you will. Some call it stealing from the rich to give to the poor. Whether you agree with this piece of public policy or not usually depends on which side of the redistribution curve you find yourself. But even the most ardent right wingers who are intellectually honest would agree that some redistribution is probably good because without it we’d see pitchforks marching in the street. But on the other hand (and there’s always another hand), who is some yahoo to tell me how much of my hard-earned money they are entitled to take from me? Shouldn’t a man who works 8 hours bring home more loaves than the man who worked two? And what of all of this not paying our “fair share” of the tax nonsense? If anyone – rich or poor – is paying the amount they’re supposed to pay based on law enacted by Congress, isn’t that their “fair share”? And yet all of this said, those who impose their political will on all of us are mostly those one percenters we’re told to scorn. But even the greatest redistributor of them all, the Mighty Bern, is a multi-millionaire. Greed is the politics of irony and politics is the irony of greed.
And then there is just aspiration. The desire to do better and to be better. Is wanting better for yourself and your family an act of greed? Maybe. But better is a relative measurement. There really is no “better” by itself, only “better than” when compared to another. Better than you, better than me, better than them, better than us. And it’s a funny thing about greed – we never see ourselves as greedy, only and always the other. It’s that judgement thing again. The judgement of greed is really just a finger pointing session. And when you find the finger pointe at you remember this simple bit of counsel: never forget to judge the judges who are judging you.
Greed has been perhaps the most written about topic in the history of societies. The Greeks, Persians, Jews, the Chinese, and the medieval all spoke of greed in the search for the betterment of the tribe and the cleansing of the soul. Augustine of Hippo (aka St. Augustine) once famously penned, “Greed is not a defect in the gold that is desired but in the man who loves it perversely by falling from justice which he ought to esteem as incomparably superior to gold; nor is lust a defect in bodies which are beautiful and pleasing”. If he were alive today, that Augustine of Hippo guy would no doubt be a writer for SNL. A real wordsmith that one.
Remember the 1987 movie Wall Street? It offers a message that’s simpler and more resonant than 600 years ago. The modern apostle Gordon Gekko shared three simple words: “greed is good”. Greed creates wealth, lifts all boats, and greed satisfies our most basic needs for security and even love. But is greed really “good”? Only you can judge that. And judge it you should.
But in the end, greed is a legacy that is calculated by our urges and wants of the moment. The choices we make today about greed become the legacy we leave tomorrow about our character. So the trick with greed as with all facets of the human condition is to find balance. Balance your desires with your resources. Balance your aspirations with the betterment of others. And of course, always balance your red wine with just the right cracker.
Right?
Good luck and have a good week.
Joe Still
2021.07.04
Cite
“It is greed to do all the talking but not to want to listen at all.”
– Democritus