Greed is Our Way of Life

Greed is not just a lust for money at the expense of other people. It is far more diabolical in its simplicity. Greed is thinking we can go it alone without the need for others. Greed is putting money first at the expense of life itself. It's trading the wonder, the curiosity, the joy of creation for stability in the safety of money. Greed is saying that money is safer than freedom and cooperation. Money will bring us our joy without the need for a fulfilled life. 

Greed is a rejection of people as a whole to live out our lives in isolation except when it seems convenient to us. As we focus on money, we sell the time we could use to enjoy life. We claim it is necessary for survival, but it is not. It is a replacement for cooperation with others. As much as everyone hates to admit it today, we are social animals. We were never meant to go it alone and the insistence that we must is contrary to life satisfaction. It can be endured, but we will not thrive.

As we focus on money to ensure our own survival, we grow further detached from the rest of humanity. As we grow further detached, we lose the spark that made life worth living. As we lose that spark, the quality of people degrade for their lack of fulfillment. As people degrade, we lose any chance of returning back to cooperation. But turn back, we must.

Imagine humanity at its perfection. Perhaps a group of 50 people. Everyone is loving, caring, sharing, happy, and fulfilled. Everyone is a friend. They do all kinds of things together: play games, sports, sing, dance, build, create, and make magnificent wonders for the sole purpose of creativity. They share meals, laugh, and live in harmony. It is utopia itself—one giant family. But what breaks this utopia? The little thing we call greed. Not the squeezing a pauper for a nickel who can no longer feed his family kind of greed, but the basic starting point of greed: I will work toward my own goals and free myself from the need of others.

Greed is thinking we can go it alone without the need for others.

So one person begins contributing minimally to the group and more toward self. He starts to acquire things and keeps them for himself. The others eventually see this and see it as a risk to cohesion. Out of jealousy or fear, they begin to think that they, too, would like to have their own personal things. Why not? It's much less hassle than trying to share and dealing with human dynamics. And in the end, is it not safer to be self-sufficient without need to rely on others? Our physical items, little homes and kingdoms, our own stockpiles of food will save us. We don't need the others.

As the individuals begin to individualize, they begin to work less as a group. They don't have to do things because they are personally set. Those who became self-sufficient first are working things out alone just fine. They no longer need the group. But now the group is smaller and those who struggle to acquire and live on their own are forced to get scraps from those who acquired. They must do their bidding now in order to survive. The whole community turns toward this form of individualized living. Acquiring for self and becoming self-sufficient becomes "the dream" but it's at the cost of the joy they once had.

Over time, this individualized way of living becomes the norm. People become calloused toward one another or indifferent. We each have our own lives. You live yours, I'll live mine. Leave me to my devices and I'll leave you to yours. Unfortunately, this way of living in separation slowly dehumanizes everyone around you. They're not friends, they're not support, they are just people in your way. This is not living anymore. This is acquiring. This is joyless work for the sake of survival and self-sufficiency. It is greed as a culture. We forget the other way of living and assume this is just the way it is after multiple generations. Living this way turns people more and more sour, depressed, lethargic, bored, alone, and unfulfilled. And now we ask rhetorically, "but what else is there?"

The thought of communal living is now insane. Imagine trying to work together with these other people for communal living? They're selfish, greedy, absorbed, broken, and traumatized. How in the world is one supposed to make a community out of that? It's impossible. So people continue this way and the problems escalate. For thousands of years they escalate as production becomes our god. Greed so profound that we can't even recognize it as greed anymore. Only the most cruel or rich or anyone we don't like is greedy—certainly not us. It's normal to live like this. It can't be any other way.

And so, we continue. Some people manage to find a decent life this way, and many others find it a significant struggle. The problem is so daunting that we can't fathom trying to save the world and we continue with the status quo hoping it'll all work itself out some day. We put our heads down and keep on keeping on. Anyone who tries to band together is an enemy. They're foolish and it's plainly obvious as to why: fear. We can't work together, just look at these people! Anyone proclaiming anything else is a communist. They want to take what you have and give it to others. They want to enslave you all the same and take. This isn't about cooperation, it's about extortion! The lies continue and are easily believed. Those with the money and power have nothing to gain and everything to lose if people return back to a utopian lifestyle. 

We can learn to love again and show the way in cooperation, or we can turn back and watch it all collapse.

Lucky for the rich, people have forgotten utopia altogether. It is an impossible myth at this point. People are bound to believe them that utopia is impossible. This is all we've ever known. Any attempt to sway the people is met swiftly with a barrage of believable lies that it's a scam. Fear it. Fear it. Fear it. It can never be. 

We need not convince the world, however. We simply need to convince a few good people and show the way. The trick, then, is finding good people in a world such as this. Most everyone is broken down by the system. Where are we going to find good people? And so, it starts in the mind. We must awaken people to how we are living, awaken them to a better way, instruct how to trust and love yet again, and only then can such people band together. When such people accomplish this, the way will be shown and the contrast can be seen and remembered. We can then shift back into cooperative ways of living while retaining all the advancement we've gathered so far.

There is one other way, however. It's the way that has perhaps been going on for ages. The other way is to ride it out. Eventually, greed collapses most of everything we know. Infrastructure is lost. Industrialization collapses. People can't eat. People die. Populations dwindle and we're forced into working together or dying. Small pockets of humans continue to live and relearn how to cooperate and pass along the mindsets that keep us united and working together in harmony. Meanwhile, evidence of all the past civilizations get buried and lost to time. They disintegrate as humanity tries to build itself up again. They relearn what it is to live and work together but in the challenges of survival. Life is again full of opportunity, wonder, and possibility. Until the cycle repeats.

We are at the turning point now. We have two paths ahead of us. We can learn to love again and show the way in cooperation, or we can turn back and watch it all collapse. It starts internally with our own minds. Once we've achieved a mindset of love and cooperation, we can find each other and build something together and pave the way. And when we show the way, we hope to help in the healing of minds all around to join us and stop the cycle of destruction. We can all be comfortable and happy. Or, we can await the destruction and eventually be happy again despite discomfort as we return to the beginning.

If you wish to start working on your mind, I've written a free book titled Your Mind is Made of Voices. This is where it all begins if we wish to return to cooperative living.