Human Greed & Selfishness Are Not Healthy States of Being: Part 1

Greed & selfishness are, undoubtedly, a form of violence--not only against Humanity, but also against Nature, our Home Earth and our companion residents & species.

“This disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful, and to despise, or, at least, to neglect persons of poor and mean condition, though necessary both to establish and to maintain the distinction of ranks and the order of society, is, at the same time, the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments. That wealth and greatness are often regarded with the respect and admiration which are due only to wisdom and virtue; and that the contempt, of which vice and folly are the only proper objects, is often most unjustly bestowed upon poverty and weakness, has been the complaint of moralists in all ages.
—Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), I:III, p.6

Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator (1940) in a powerful anti-fascist, anti-greed speech, one of the greatest in film history. Does it not hold up today? I think so; and there is a fine analysis here confirming as much, written by Nicholas Barber for the BBC, 5 February 2021.

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I have a question for everyone. Have we reached Peak Greed? My answer. Not yet, it seems, but we might be getting close. When we do, is it inevitable that society will collapse, implode and lead to some dystopian future? While predicting the future is never easy, human extinction (or near-extinction) is one possibility. I am being very serious here, chiefly because I see how humans think (we don’t, at least not in a healthy way) and how we act (short-term). Greed is an excellent example to confirm this observation of our unhealthy ways. Or, perhaps, there is a small chance, a glimmer of hope, in that we might be able to learn and adapt to a whole new paradigm, one in which greed and its cousin, selfishness, no longer dominates us and our way of thinking.

Yes, it has everything to do with our way of thinking, our thought processes and our acceptance and approval of ideas that tend to surround and engulf us—this consumerist mindset, this “need” for acquisition and ownership—all the more so in our digital age. Some people think greed is good. Or of not good, normal and acceptable and part of our human evolution. It is actually not part of human evolution, but advocates of greed and of our current economic system will say it is, and do so without much evidence. As if pointing to a wealthy individual is proof enough, when in reality all it really says is that one of the outcomes of greed is the hoarding of wealth and resources. Instead of it being an admirable character trait, as so many believe it is, it is a highly destructive and unhealthy one, not only to general society, but also to the individual, and to everyone he meets.

Consider what greed does to a person. It gives permission to think in ways that are unhealthy. Greed says that acquisition, extraction, exploitation and rapacity is all good and necessary; that this is natural human behaviour; and that it is all normal and necessary in the realm of human progress. It is the kind of progress where it is considered good to dominate the Earth, to bring the Earth and all of its species, all of its resources, all of its waterways, all of its natural wonders under the control of homo sapiens, and in particular only certain humans who happen to be influential and wealthy when measured in monetary terms. Money is not only speech, it is power. In our case here on Earth, a horrible abuse of power.

Such people, oddly enough, are admired, talked about and feted for their achievements in financial gain. Their chief accomplishment is, simply put, being wealthy, more so than 99.99 percent of humanity. How these billionaires obtained said wealth is unimportant for most people. It is likely because the admirers themselves would like to be a billionaire, and they do not care how the money is obtained, even if it is done through immoral, unethical or illegal means. It is also because there exists a certain way of thinking that says it is not only expected but also acceptable to exploit our Earth. Moreover, wealth in many (if not all religions) is a sign of heavenly or otherworldly approval. It might be, but Nature does not favour the wealthy any more than she does the poor. But humans out of touch with Nature and with the Earth most certainly do, following the destructive path of domination.

In simple terms, under such a domination ideology, it is the unsaid understanding that the wealthy shall dominate the Earth and bring it under their submitted will. The wealthy are not only deserving of said wealth, but also of said power. In all this, they, the wealthy chosen ones see nothing wrong with such actions, even though you will note it contains the language of aggression, brutality and violence. Yes, all this including violence. The violent see the act of taking as normal; the act of giving as abnormal. The violent see giving as weakness, softness and missed opportunity for further acquisition. The violent see acquisition, regardless of the ways and means of achieving such, as not only preferable but also an idyllic state. To possess is to control and dominate, is what too many humans see as good and preferable.

What too many see as normal economic activity, the acquisition of money, the acquisition of land and buildings, the acquisition of employees (i.e., people), the acquisition of all manner of goods and services; the exploitation of our Earth, its natural resources, its minerals, forests and the earth itself; the destruction of ecosystems, forests, habitats, the homes of millions of species—is all based and enabled by Greed. Climate Change and what awaits us homo sapiens and what awaits millions of species is a consequence of Greed. Of the human kind.

With greed often comes selfishness—one drives the other, often a result of feelings of lack, a denial of authenticity, a denial of the true self, which we all have. I do not feel the need to prove it here, since I sense and think by decades of observation that this is an undeniable fact. Supporting this view is Erich Fromm [1900-1980], who in Chapter 4 of Man for Himself (1947), writes:

The selfish person is only in himself, wants everything for himself, feels no pleasure in giving, but only in taking. The world outside is looked at only from the standpoint of what he can get out of it; he lacks interest in the needs of others, and respect for their dignity and integrity. He can see nothing but himself; he judges everyone and everything from its usefulness to him; he is basically unable to love. Does not this prove that concern for others and concern for oneself are unavoidable alternatives? This would be so if selfishness and self-love were identical. But that assumption is the very fallacy which has led to so many mistaken conclusions concerning our problem. Selfishness and self-love, far from being identical, are actually opposites. The selfish person does not love himself too much but too little; in fact he hates himself. This lack of fondness and care for himself, which is only one expression of his lack of productiveness, leaves him empty and frustrated. He is necessarily unhappy and anxiously concerned to snatch from life the satisfactions which he blocks himself from attaining. He seems to care too much for himself but actually he only makes an unsuccessful attempt to cover up and compensate for his failure to care for his real self. Freud holds that the selfish person is narcissistic, as if he had withdrawn his love from others and turned it toward his own person. It is true that selfish persons are incapable of loving others, but they are not capable of loving themselves either.

This is the part that struck me as noteworthy and essential, which could explain the need of some to keep on acquiring things. “The selfish person does not love himself too much but too little; in fact he hates himself.” Now, this does require some thought and introspection, because it is counter-intuitive, but once you do consider its merits, you will see that there is much truth to what Fromm wrote.

Final point to tie things together, and it is a rather important point. When we as humans are in harmony with our true and authentic selves, we are in harmony with Nature. The opposite is also undeniably true. I will end here with a nature documentary on birds, produced by Forest Film Studio, 2018, with the cooperation of Polish State Forests.

Merci et à bientôt
Born at 315 ppm
Now at 425 ppm

I will post Part 2 next week.