Monday, September 15, 2008
Greed is Greater than Sex
I used to think that sex was the most powerful non-survival drive known to man. After reading this mornings paper, I’m beginning to wonder if its really greed! The financial markets are being shaken to the core today by the demise of yet another series of financial institutions—Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. These failures have come because of these institutions participation in the recent mortgage scandals and risky real estate deals. What drove these smart men and women, who make millions of dollars a year, to take on such risky investments? Probably the same thing that has driven many “regular” people to buy things on credit that they cannot really afford: Greed! Not many of us are exempt. I’m sure not, but this whole ugly mess has really made me think. I keep running across friends who are either on the verge of declaring bankruptcy or in the process. The lesson for me is to not buy things I can’t afford, not live an extravagant lifestyle, and seek to value treasure that doesn’t fade away. To listen to the commercials on TV during sporting events, the only real way to have security is to allow some of these big financial institutions to invest your money. I guess that theory has been blown to hell! Maybe this will make some more people think! What really lasts? What is really secure? What do you think? Click the comment link to the bottom right, if you have an opinion, and lets dialogue.
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5 comments:
I just read a great article in the NY Times stating that its not just greed but denial that led to this downfall on Wall Street. Denial that the securities that these companies held were actually worth what the investment company thought they were worth and thus denial of the actual value of the company.
The writer compared what happened at Lehman as similar to what happened in the housing market when home owners bought houses high and then tried to sell them to get out from under huge mortgages. Many home owners never really adjusted the prices of the homes to reflect what they were really worth so their homes never sold.
So it was with Lehman, a company that has been around since 1850 and survived the Great Depression but didn't survive the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Merrill Lynch was in less denial and was able to be sold to Bank of America. It's interesting to watch. Check out http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/business/16nocera.html?pagewanted=2&hp
It seems to me that the most powerful drive, the core of all our self-destructive behavior, is fear. Doesn't that encompass greed and overdriven sexuality? If you knew without a doubt that you would be perpetually satisfied, you'd no longer clamor or worry. Through fear we compensate for a lack of hope.
I have been told that, in various forms, "Fear not!" is the most common command in Scripture. When God finally judges Israel through Hosea and Judah through Amos, Yahweh “drops his plumb line” to accuse them of one form after another of the practice of fear. They built their economy on the backs of the poor. They hedged their bets by worshiping Yahweh and the rain and fertility gods. They used their time in worship to consider their business plans. They found their security in chariots and weapons of war. They found their hope in diplomacy that compromised their fealty to God. You cannot respond through hope if you're living by fear. How could we ever have the imagination to consider what it means to suffer with Christ if we're always afraid?
Greed, etc., isn't just some Bad Thing. Its a symptom of a greater disease.
Nice post jyg. I have a friend of mine who works as a therapist. He says the number one problem he deals with in the lives of others is anxiety, a form of fear. But I’d suggest that while greed is certainly a symptom, there is something even deeper than fear or greed. Some of the greediest people in the New Testament, so far as I can tell, were the most religious (Luke 16:14). But on top of their greed they were great givers, even tithing a tenth of their spices. Perhaps the sin beneath the sin (of greed or anything else for that matter) is what one author called “taking what’s good and making it ultimate.” Money, hobbies, sex, education, kids, our marital status, our homes (I love my house), etc. are all good things. But when I make what’s good “the ultimate”, when I give it supreme power in and over my life, when it governs me and not vice versa, when I value it above all else, that seems to me to be the root of the problem. I think that’s called idolatry—ugly word isn’t it? No one wants to be called an “idolater.”
It’s interesting to me that the government is using tax-payers dollars to bail out these businesses. I think that the comment in the above post about “building their economies on the backs of the poor” may be something to ponder as our lawmakers try to untangle this whole thing. Of course, the real issue—the darkness of the human heart—has not been addressed. We’ll see what will happen. Lets keep talking.
dave at the 22nd Mile
What do I know about economics? But, I think the bail-out is, unintentionally, a move in favor of the poor. No one feels an economic crunch like those at the bottom.
I don't think human lawmakers can address the darkness of the human heart. Our entire legal/government and financial systems are founded upon ideals which work in favor of that darkness, or that is, against the Good News that God has been abundantly generous with us and so we are free to be generous with one another. If we deny that truth, the void which gets created is filled by that greedy, selfish darkness.
Our society's answer to the poor, the widow, the orphan and the alien is that they ought to pick themselves up by their bootstraps and take calculated advantage of the opportunities around them. While God, on the other hand, does "ridiculous" things like institute Jubilee and tell people without money to come buy and eat. If our society wants to practice "light" instead of the darkness you refer to, they're going to have to take a hard look at godly, restorative generosity. Now, wouldn't that be "on earth as it is in heaven"?
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