Greed: The Inbred Obstacle to Change

Everyone is screaming for change - except, of course, for the minority of Americans for whom everything is just fine-and--dandy exactly the way it is. We expect the government to do this for us. If we are Republicans, we expect John McCain and Sarah Palin to lead the needed changes. Those who identify as Democrats, expect the same from Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Libertarians expect it of neither and true patriots expect it of either. Anarchists expect nothing of any government except for further damage and eventual chaos. (Sorry for any label I have left out - I am sure there are many more ways to 'box' political points of view.)

One problem is that the great ship that is our country is far too large to turn about in the short run. Change, if it comes, will be grueling and painfully slow. But that is not the only awakening of consciousness that might help prepare for the inevitable struggles ahead. There is also history and the nature of human beings to contend with! The issue of greed is so ubiquitously fundimental that it is referenced, as a seminal issue, as far back as ancient Greece and later on in bothe the Old and New Testaments.

In the ancient Greek tragedies of Sophocles and Aeschylus great men fell from great heights. The cause, in each and every case could be traced back to a notion the Greeks called "Hamartia" or "Tragic Flaw." The specific tragic flaw that afflicted these people who became known throughout history as "Tragic Heroes" was called "Hubris", literally excessive pride.

Like individual people, great cultures and nations can and do fall, often (if not always) as the result of another type of Hamartia, that of Greed. Unfortunately, our own otherwise admirable capitalistic system of economics and government actually encourages and reinforces this particular human attribute. Those of you living to read this today are living through a period where greed has done what it always does - to every civilization and culture since the dawn of humankind - collapsing it on itself. Not unlike the Deadly Sin of Avarice, the greed of individuals, in the colelctive, can be and often is the self-destruct mechanism built in to humanity's efforts to recreate a more perfect world.

This is not so much a criticism of our type of Republic or system of monetary reality as much as it is an explanation. Communism, with its attempts to actually devalue personal wealth and acquisition fared less well that we have for over 200 years and fascism tends to do even worse. It is entirely possible that our system, though clearly imperfect, is the best of what is available - But it is still vulnerable to the time bomb built in by a seminal flaw in human nature - Greed.

In the United States, the acquisition of objects, money and power have always been very highly regarded and even codified as values in many of our (tax) laws and regulations. The phenomenon is ubiquitous world-wide, but we here in the U.S. have been unabashedly proud of it as a cornerstone of what makes us " The land of opportunity."

Greed, like most human qualities is not evenly distributed across the world's population. Most (but clearly not all) of the people on our world aspire to better lives and more things. In visiting Central America I was struck at the fact that what looked to we North Americans like "poverty" was an acceptable condition and even a satisfying circumstance for many of the indigenous people I spoke with there. Greed is not a uniquely North American phenomenon, but we seem to have engendered a higher degree of it than have many other countries and cultures.

Arguably, our system requires it. The machinery of a capitalist system relies on the perpetual cycle of manufacture and sales. Without greed or some lesser degree of avarice, the wheels of our society would have ground to a halt long ago. We have gotten over 225 years out of it and now it appears in jeopardy. There are limits to everything - even to systems that encourage acquisition, possessions and, yes, greed.

What has happened of late on Wall Street has been building for many years. It has been foreseen and allowed to continue because those with the power to change anything substantive about it have continued to benefit from the way it was functioning. Some, no doubt, still are.

Whoever the next resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue turns out to be and no matter how devoutly he believes that change is imperative to our safe and secure survival as a people, he will find a system so inbred - so corrupted by itself and its devotion to the great god Greed, that it is unlikely that things can be turned around in one term or two.... or six. It has taken things a long while to get this bad and hopes for any kind of quick fix are simply naive.

The next President is doomed, before he ever takes office, to be faulted for not making everything OK during his watch. It takes many miles for a huge battleship or aircraft carrier to turn 180 degrees. So it is with the reality of nations and the application of a basic Newtonian law of physics - that a body in motion tends to remain in motion. Changing course is necessary but will challenge, in all probability, the next couple of generations - not just the next couple of Presidential terms.

Shifting our values is the core change that will allow for such a "C" (fundimental) change in direction and afford a reasonable future for the coming generations. Perhaps we must learn to do what we can as individuals rather than look to sound-bite scripted 'leaders' to bring about the world we would really like our children to inherit. Real hope rests in the values and behaviors of individual people. Some are elected to political office - Most are not. But, each and every one of us has an important role to play if meaningful and sustainable change is to ever occur.