At the end of Greed
We all want more of something, more money, more friends, more time. There is no end to the human's condition to want more and even those who say they are content, want more protection on their contentment. We are all greedy. I think the difference comes down to how we satisfy our desires, who and what are we willing to destroy to get what we want and how fast we are willing to lower our bars to achieve our aims. When does, Do no evil become Justify some evil. What is evil?
It is not for me to decide.
In the current world of instant gratification and maximisation of pleasure and minimisation of discomfort, how can we expect people not to be greedy at every opportunity they see, at every turn? Each of us are trying to improve but in so many areas, it is a zero sum game where one's improvement relies on the degradation of another, one benefits, the other pays. Time and time again it seems to be the same ones, the same groups paying the costs while others only skim. Middlemen living off the sweat and tears of those who provide for them.
The problem in crypto as I see it is that for the most part, the concepts of a more equitable world that benefits all is hot air as the space seems filled with the highest concentration of personal maximisers of any industry. With better skills and control, they would make the Wolves of Wall street seem like puppies still suckling milk from their mother. Add in the anonymity and the potential for the greed to satisfy needs intensifies as the needs become, anything desired.
It is the sickness that afflicts so many of the rich and powerful, a sickness where the money and the endless possibility becomes too much and the greed sets it eyes on new prizes, new highs. There is no wonder that is so much disgusting behaviour in Hollywood, so much twisted that goes on with the high-flyers as they continually search for greater satisfactions and their desires and entitlements creep further and further from the average until they are partaking in the most violent acts of oppression of the liberties of others.
Do they recognise their acts for what they may be of do they justify them through their deluded view that they are above others as they have more than others? Is it their arrogance that believes they are more deserving? And what of all those below willing to sell themselves to rise in the ranks in the hope to have their own twisted fantasies fulfilled? What of those who oppress the very people who support their rise, for to lift another is to use resources that could be used upon the self? At all levels, greed persists.
Where is the balance in this world, where is the equilibrium point where each person can have enough without encroaching on the needs of others. Does it exist? Perhaps a point of balance is impossible as there will always be those who will ramp up their requirements as they receive more, those who are never content with what they have and never grateful for all of those who sacrificed for them to have it. And, there will always be those who limit themselves, oppress themselves and toil endlessly so that others can have opportunity.
Well, perhaps there won't always be those, perhaps it will get to a point where all are maximisers with no end to desire but death. Maybe that is the purpose of human existence;
Greed til the end, the end of us all.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
In my country there is a tremendous crisis, an inflation of 14,000% and many have left the country for a better life, although I have not left the country at times, I think that those who left did not do it for the good of their country or their families, but because of greed to maintain their abundant state of life that we had here dissolve many wives families who leave and leave their husbands alone to seek money, but when they return they spend everything on alcoholic beverages and movie tastes while there are people who do he does not have to eat or medicine, as if nobody cares what happens to his colleagues, there is ego and pride
It's much easier to fit in to this selfish world than to build a new one, especially if you don't have the capacity to imagine the possibility of doing so, which most don't seem to have at least.
Monkey see, monkey do.
It's not going to change anytime soon in my opinion, unfortunately. We've been conditioned into the sheep we are and a big part of the conditioning is in how we react. I've been meaning to write a post about anger as a valid emotion for a long time now because I feel thats something we're collectively missing in our lives these days. I am all for conflict resolution and talking things through but at times, a good old fashioned bit of anger is what is really needed but most would believe that anger and violence are never warranted or acceptable. I disagree. Sometimes they're the only actions and emotions that are valid.
Sometimes I think I'm among the very few who can see how fucked up the world is, other times I feel like everyone can see it, deal with it and accept it and I just happen to be one of those who can't.
I still believe positive change can take place but I really can't see how or where from. Even the likes of us who see the futility in competing with one another are still forced to be a part of the system and concern ourselves with it, lending it more credibility and propogating our own system of enslavement. I really could give two fucks about money but I can't afford to feed that attitude if I want to feed my family. It's a bit of a catch 22.
I've always said that we've over-complicated life and our freedom will come with the simplest of acts or words. Time will tell.
These are questions that you ask knowing that you might never get a reassuring answer. Only few have to give and are contented with what they have
I still picked out that balance is impossible
Impossible for now anyways. Until a paradigm shift in mentality happens
Until then, we'd keep on preaching the gospel of contentment.
This is an area, almost everyone is guilty of
The ones who are greedy don't care how they get it. They can never have enough. No matter what they have ,they will want more. If they worked hard for it maybe they would think differently. A few do but most don't. I have a compassion and a caring and maybe that is what they lack. I would like to get to the top like everyone else but I do have my limits.
You are right, everybody always wants more.
Even those who would say they want nothing,
cannot say they do not want more happiness,
more laughter, more love, more fulfillment.
I find it interesting that so many people are
afraid of change, yet by wanting more of anything,
what they want is more change, for to gain more,
is to change your current situation.
How ironic, we want the most is the thing we are afraid of...
I've been thinking about this for a while and my answer, after analysing it, is that it's usually hard to get to a point where there are no "evils". When we end explicit slavery, there is implicit slavery, human trafficking, etc., and when we end those, there will always be people doing more evils. We can't end all evils.
Trying to end all evils usually ends up being a 1984 scenario where we have to create a Big Brother kind of entity to observe everyone and everything, to destroy all pretence of anonymity and transparency. And in the end, even if we destroy all of these evils, we will always have more preferences about what is good and what is bad in our current environment.
The endgame is just more and more evils for all of eternity. We can try to get there every day and it would be the ethically correct path of action, but there would never be a point where we can get to a no-evil environment or to a perfectly balanced state.
I think greed can be good or bad. I think it's good to want to do well in life but bad if you are being destructive and destroying wealth in the pursuit of your greed.
The pursuit of more is the eternal blessing and curse of man. While it has enabled us demand better from ourselves, a lack of satisfaction means we are capable of just about anything (evil) to get it
We all want more, no matter how much we have acquired. Their is nothing like balance. We keep wanting more until we are no more... Smile
But contentment with what we have will help us not to be too bothered about what we don't have while appreciation will help us to value those that sacrifice themselves for our comfort...
What a wisdom sir.
Sometimes I think we are dissatisfied we always want more than what we already have we become so greedy that it is not enough with what we already have sometimes this is good but sometimes not so much, we must enjoy one of the things we always want more is the money then we work and work for the end not having enjoyed beautiful moments that are worth more than money