Greed

I’m a romantic and idealist. I think people aren’t good…

They're great!

Which is why I get terribly heartbroken whenever I discover otherwise.

The popular American journalist Malcolm Gladwell wrote about a theory developed by Communication Studies expert Tim Levine on our strong tendency to default to truth, in which even the best judges and detectives subconsciously assume the best in people and resist all the signals that suggest they are being deliberately deceived. Their errors of judgement get innocent people hanged and hardened criminals out of jail and back on the streets.

Belief in humanity’s basic goodness has its perils.

When people are being greedy, for example, I immediately see something wrong, not with their being, but with what’s outside of them. I attribute it not to their character, but to their environment. What has made them that way?

I cannot bear to think of this flaw as an intrinsic quality. Unfortunately for me, science has once more proven just how deluded I am.

The documentary film Social Dilemma shows a social experiment conducted on people playing a game of Monopoly with the rules bent a little. One player enjoyed an extra roll of the dice, and as a result, amassed more money and properties in the course of the game. This player ended up eating a lot more pretzels and confidently making arrogant comments belittling his or her opponent throughout the game.

This pattern of behavior was observed across the board - even in the introverted ones. Every single player who enjoyed that extra dice roll thought he or she was the greatest gift of God to mankind.

So okay, that wasn’t exactly how the results were phrased. But you get what I mean.

A lot of people in the world have benefited from this existential extra dice roll. As a result, they have ended up creating self-perpetuating environments that protect them and keep them powerful. Our need for comfort and convenience provided by the status quo forces all of us to operate under these environments controlled by the powerful. These environments have been shaping us in ways we don’t realize, much less examine. We simply don’t have the luxury of time to get out of that environment to sit and meditate under the Bodhi tree.

But make time for examination, we must!

Why am I not driving a Tesla and living in a mansion with an ocean view?

It’s because I didn’t get an extra dice roll. And I don't mean sushi.

When you are not part of the privileged set, you tend to ask yourself why. Is there something wrong with me? Of course not! Then maybe…something’s wrong with THEM!

Alas, you become arrogant too. You tell yourself that you are right because you have remained truly kind, loving and deeply intelligent and not pretending to do so because it is the socially acceptable thing to do.

Let us strip away all the color of these emotionally-loaded words for a second. Once we do that, two words become evident.

Natural Selection.

Eat or be eaten.

Recognizing that there is a food chain in nature, where you are in that ecosystem, and how your “eating habits” affect others in that system is very important.It’s the lack of awareness of this ecosystem that is causing so much heartbreak in the world.Any change you introduce to this natural order will have consequences.

Unfortunately, those at the top of this food chain (I am looking at you and me) have turned a blind eye to the excesses that have been introduced to the system.Everyone just wants to keep eating even though their stomachs are already quite full.

Excess is intelligently disguised as Choice.

Option.

Freedom!

Weren’t you fine just the way you were, before you discovered those words?

Some people can bear to “eat” so many more people than they actually need to profit off their energy; I cannot. This is why I have remained where I am despite having enough skills and talents to “get ahead” in the world. This is where my progressive education and spiritual beliefs have failed me. I was early to recognize that all throughout history, wealth has been created on the backs of people’s deprivations and sufferings.

People who are desperate tend to be very strong magnets for predation. They emanate an irresistible will to live and will therefore do whatever it takes to survive.People who are desperate are practically begging to be enslaved.

How much is he doing the job for you? Let me do it for nothing. Just hire me. Please.

That energy is very seductive to people also wanting to live and do whatever it takes to get ahead in their own wealthy bubble, in their own extravagant system. They are also trying their best not to get eaten inside their system.

So they too will do whatever it takes to get ahead.

Those above you in the food chain (an employer, typically) will eat you up, gobbling up more than one-third of your day to satisfy their unquenchable appetite. Oftentimes, the wage you will receive will not be enough to be called a living wage, so you will have to agree to a few more people eating you up to make ends meet.

And because you were born and raised in a religious tradition of gratefulness for every little thing received, of turning the other cheek, of throwing bread when stones and other hard things have been hurled at you, you can’t help but feel terribly, terribly obliged to your life source/s.

You will not rock the boat.

You will not ask for a raise.

You will always say yes to every unreasonable request.

Status quo preserved.

And this is how billions of people around the world – 99% of us in fact – have successfully remained grist to the wheel of the system, run by the wealthy One Percenters.

It is not the fault of wealthy and powerful people that they are confronted daily by such desperate people and such limitless pool of opportunity to one-up, swindle or downright extort the desperate energy they offer. We are literally just antelope game to them.

I’m not quite sure how we can collectively remove the bizarre corruptions that have been introduced to this otherwise perfectly natural law of Natural Selection. Our system has ended up fueling, instead of moderating, this Greed.

Something has to shift the tectonic plates of our modern world so we can do a humanity-wide rethink of the system we’re in.

For sure, humanity has tried several times to do some form of reset. Bloodless revolutions have been carried out. Philippine’s People Power Edsa Revolution. America’s Occupy Wall Street (another anniversary has come and gone on September 17th, yey #Adbusters!). And of course, we have the not-so-bloodless Arab Spring, which sent Syria into a dark abyss it is still clawing itself out of to this day.

Positive outcomes have been recorded, but they cannot compare to the negative outcomes of humanity’s continual participation in this flawed system, fueled by this strange appetite to hoard and “get ahead.”

I am a romantic and idealist. I am hopeful and will continue to assume the best in people.

It is easy to say “go to war!” or “Kill ‘em all!” but when you are older and wiser and been there done that, violent extremism just sounds…inefficient.A terrible waste of precious time and energy.

So I’m proposing a simpler solution for now, and I address it at a slightly closer angle to the 99 percent of the world’s population (including myself):

May we please be a little less desperate?

For Money. Attention. Status. Power.

May we all live our lives with a little more dignity, with none of the excessive displays of gratefulness that make us look far worse than actual beggars?

May we take regular breaks from social media and our narcissism?

If we, the 99 percenters, weaponized ourselves with a healthy dose of Self-Respect and Dignity, the One Percenters will be forced to think twice before defaulting back to their greed.

There is always harm in having too much of anything, even seemingly harmless things like air and lettuce and Respect and Dignity.

We all have everything we will ever need. After all, we are so much more than just an amoeba slinking into oblivion. As part of an evolutionary process spanning tens of thousands of years, we represent the perfection of all creation - conscious, alive, and pulsing with intelligently loving potential to will paradise on earth into being.

And perhaps, the conscious attenuation of this desperate energy by our own self-awareness of the bigger picture can somehow help slow down the wheels of the System enough to shift its course towards true empowerment…

pretzels for all…

and ultimately – enlightenment under the shade of the nearest Bodhi Tree.

There is a lot of serious literature out there on this topic and if I wanted to do a thesis I’d check them all out and science the hell out of this essay. But keeping house for a family of 4 does keep me too occupied throughout the day. If you’re on the same boat as me, I recommend watching the excellent Michael Winterbottom film of the same title instead, as it best sums up my sentiments on the topic.