The Plague of Misidentification
Blaming, Scapegoating, & Refusal of Ownership Part 3
In today's TPOM, we will look at greed, what it is, and how it interacts with its environment. Taking care to track its outcroppings and discuss why the need for blaming, scapegoating, and refusal of ownership is ultimately essential to its nature when followed to its logical philosophical core.
Greed
Greed - "Inordinate or insatiate longing, esp. for wealth; avaricious or covetous desire. Const. of." OED.
I am further connecting greed with the following: “Avaricious - Immoderately desirous of accumulating wealth; greedy of gain, grasping; figurative eager to possess or accumulate." OED.
"A selfish and excessive desire for more of something (such as money) than is needed." Merriam Webster Dictionary.
"Greed (or avarice) is an uncontrolled longing for increase in the acquisition or use of material gain (be it food, money, land, or animate/inanimate possessions); or social value, such as status, or power." Wikipedia.
"An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth." The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
A Little History
As we take our journey into greed and how it undulates across the ages generating its terrible destructive outcroppings, it will help us to take a look at a few historical figures that were particularly excellent examples of what greed does within the person, community, and ultimately humanity.