In the last post we discussed what I believe to be the sneakiest of the 7 Deadly Sins in Pride. Today I want to discuss a sin that in a lot of ways goes hand in hand with pride. That being greed and discuss how we can overcome it in a world that is fueled by it.
I would like to begin by explaining why I believe pride and greed go hand in hand. Pride often leads to greedy desires. If one believes themself to be more important than others, then why wouldn’t they expect and desire the greatest privileges in life, even if that is at the expense of others.
This thought process seems to be very common in many people, even if it’s more or less subconscious. I hate to admit it, but I too have had moments of realization, realizing that I expected some certain standard for myself. Believing that for whatever reason I deserve to pursue my dreams and be happy.
No one inherently deserves anything. It seems that things either are or aren’t. All good that happens to you, I would say, should be accepted graciously. No expectation equals no disappointment, making yourself able to take on good or bad with an even keeled mind.
I would now like to explain why I say that this world is fueled by greed, despite that I believe you can make a fairly good assumption. A good portion of the world is capitalist. I’m not going to try to make an argument for or against capitalism, as economics is no where near my area of expertise.
Whether “for the best” or not of society, the inherent values should be called into question. Some amount of desire for stability/security can be expected, but I believe many of us desire much more than we actually need. I mean greed in itself represents wants not needs.
We individually, don’t require all that much to sustain what I believe to be a healthy, happy life. But because of the individual striving for more, I fear that the more you take is inadvertently taking from others. I personally, don’t have a problem with striving for “greatness”, but I definitely believe that you have duty to be selfless in some compatibility.
Whether or not you feel this call of duty (no way I unironically used call of duty) is up to you. Some might call this a religious calling, or a created calling, or even a natural calling. Which ever you adhere to, is again, up to you. But assuming you are reading this article, you must have some interest in being less greedy. So let’s investigate how you can go about this.
Overcoming Greed
In my mind overcoming greed is simple, but difficult. The first step is an awareness of your own greed and a desire to change it. I think it’s really important in any scenario to spend time with your “why?”. Understand it and engrave it in your, so heart so you will never forget, never having your ideals waver. The hardest part of overcoming greed will be rewiring your brain.
The main bad actor you’ll find in self-reflection is materialism. I won’t pretend to know your background, but I do know that many are given materialistic ideals from a young age, from various people including family.
Whether it’s desiring a new vehicle, house, phone, or snazzy vacations (more understandable, but debatably still materialist), people are always chasing some new want. You basically have to redo your entire value systems in some cases, for some this will be a small change, for others this will be a big change.
To be honest, this concept isn’t exactly easy in even my own mind. I for better or worse am my own greatest skeptic or critic. I wonder if the pursuit of materialism can be good? I know that often when people reach materialist goals, they get a short amount of satisfaction before seeking the next great thing.
The problem for the uber-rich, is that they can keep going to the next things and then the next, all in one day, before eventually they have nothing more to pursue. Leaving them left bored and questioning what they are supposed to do. Most will never reach this point, so is it really bad to pursue it?
At some point, people seem to come to an acceptance that they will never reach this point, and naturally learn to find satisfaction with their life. But are you really okay pursuing something that might make you feel this same feeling of being lost and unsatisfied as well?
I also don’t think it’s inherently bad to have interests that involve money. I like gaming, and to say that I don’t want the newest graphic card would be a lie. But having done this before, I know that after awhile, like all things I get, I eventually want the next best thing. Perhaps in this way it isn’t harmful, because I know this and the material are not the end all be all.
I believe that the day to day actions, through the tedium and emotional moments, this is who we really are, and this is the important thing to focus on, being the best person you can be. And for me, that is someone who isn’t greedy, but is giving.
It Feels Good Too!
Giving feels good, even better than receiving (pause). Studies prove this, while this probably varies from person to person in some compacity (what doesn’t), I find this very intriguing. I know from personal experience that this is true, I in my old age (21) have found myself more excited to see people open my gifts than to open gifts myself. So what do we do with this information?
Be less greedy, duh. You’ll love it, so try giving a little more, maybe volunteer or my golly, even give a homeless person some money (I have 50% faith that they won’t purchase copious amounts of meth with it).
At the end of the day, it’s not up to you what others do with your generosity, it’s still a good thing to do. Even if sometimes you wished that instead of giving your ungrateful nephew a $20 gift-card, that you instead gave a pristinely made knuckle sandwich.
All of this might not be rocket science, but sometimes we need to touch up on the basics again. If you could take one thing out of this post, it would be to keep the idea of selflessness or generosity on your mind. That in it’s self might be enough to spark something amazing.
If you want to explore the concept of greed deeper, as well as other struggles. Then I highly recommend “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” by Mark Manson. You can Click Here to check it out on Amazon (this is an affiliate link, meaning it supports me)
Religious Spiel
I got to be honest with you guys, I had wanted to keep my posts fairly all views friendly since I know that religion can scare some people off. But in these past days I feel as though my faith has quadrupled and it’s now a really big part of my life. So I just wanted to express some thoughts from a religious perspective as I write all of this.
In itself, I feel that this initial desire to do good despite the fact that it may not heed any positive affects for us, is very interesting. I’m not here to make some apologist argument, I simply wanted to point this out. I also don’t believe that an evolutionary argument makes much sense in this case, as again, these good acts don’t always provide us with reward. In the example of giving or speaking to the homeless, this can be dangerous.
I am not saying all homeless people are dangerous, but there are definitely some who are, I mean mental health issues and drugs will do that to a person. So once again, these people that do these kind acts, actually have good reason not to. Lastly I just wanted to share a thought based on something I heard on social media.
A helpful tool for avoiding greed, or avoiding any of the 7 Deadly Sins, would to ask yourself “What would Jesus do?”. A tough task, but a great challenge for anyone willing to try. It doesn’t mean be perfect, just a thought to prompt you to make better decisions.
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