July 30, 2023
Greed is probably the worst of The Seven Deadly Sins: it is certainly the sin that has impacted the rise and fall of The Divided States of America moreso than the other six.
The sins of pride, sloth, envy, greed, gluttony, lust and anger are considered \”deadly\” because once you\’ve committed (or engaged in) the sin — you are much more likely to commit the sin again and again and again; and, indulge in a few more (if not all) of the others.
So as I watch the Divided States and the illusory American Dream go up in smoke (or crumble into rubble) the sociologist in me repeatedly asks \”Why?\” Why is there no surcease to the monumental greed operative in this country? I suppose you could ask Bob Iger (or any other multi-millionaire or billionaire) as to what motivates their insatiability.
We certainly can\’t forget those subsidized oil companies in a discussion about greed. They have pretty much bled California dry while simultaneously gouging Californians at the pump; and, leaving a hellova mess they don\’t intend to clean up. Who says socialism isn\’t alive and well in the Divided States?!
A rumor I once heard and have mentioned now-and-again in my writings is that every armed conflagration since WWII has been about oil and who gets to keep the profits: The nation that is forced to host the pillagers or the oil rich nation itself? Ask Iraq or Venezuela or Syria or Sudan or Angola or Columbia or Niger or Nigeria or Vietnam about who got the their oil. I think Vietnam was able to reclaim their oil — but the other countries are still hungover from their interaction with US.
Advertising stokes the flames of greed and encourages people (like the disenchanted Millennials and subsequent cohorts) to live like there is no tomorrow — be one of the Joneses now! And since their survival is in question this attitude may be the logical one: because with each passing day — their tomorrows fade away.
And Mother Nature feels the oil-spawned Greed virus before the rest of us — what with warming seas producing red tides, the domoic acid algae leading to dolphin and seal deaths; 100 pilot whales suiciding…the list is much more extensive than this — but these events are in the headlines as I write.
You can make alotta dinero if you steal your oil instead of purchasing it. The same way you can make big money by stealing land and genociding the indigenous people. And don\’t forget the big profits you can make with slave labor.
I just learned that the Canadian pipeline from Canada down to the Gulf of Mexico is back online — even though the Canadians could build a pipeline to their own west coast! Apparently the Canucks don\’t mind losing a few bucks by pumping the world\’s dirtiest oil through US to be sold to foreign concerns who would pick it up in US Gulf of Mexico ports.
All-of-these atrocities are driven by what I like to call \”successful greed.\” If your greed doesn\’t get you killed — you live to steal another day.
Naturally, our species has always been greedy — from the moment we became envious of others who had more of what we wanted than we did — and we developed rationales for taking what we pleased — like Manifest Destiny or, \”civilizing the savages.\”
So those who are successfully greedy will never stop — they have to have more, more, more (Lust?).
In many corners of the world — US is viewed as the world eater because of our unbridled Gluttony…