Our lives consist of more than just our possessions
Dick Staub/Religion News Service
Issue date: 3/8/09 Section: Divine Intervention
"Greed is good," so said the fictional Gordon Gekko to the shareholders of Teldar Paper in the 1987 blockbuster "Wall Street," starring Michael Douglas.
"I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them! The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed -- for lack of a better word - is good. Greed is right. Greed works."
"Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit ... And greed - you mark my words - will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much."
Oops.This week as the Dow plummeted, 13,000 news stories included the word "greed" in summarizing our nation's current crisis, economic and otherwise:
1. Four Merrill Lynch executives pocketed $121 million in bonuses just before taxpayers helped finance a takeover of the failing firm.
2. Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, one sportswriter said, typifies the belief that living in America is to be part of a culture in which nothing is ever enough and the end (sports stardom) justifies the means (illegal steroids).
3. One book review of "Death by Leisure," (by Chris Ayres, the Hollywood correspondent for The Times of London) describes how Ayres found his life in California to be fiscally confusing as the local culture lured him into living large and introduced him to his "inner big spender."
In an age of greed, it is sobering to note that every religious tradition rejects greed. Hinduism's sacred Bhagavad Gita warns that "Hell has three gates: lust, anger, and greed." Buddha observed that "there is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed." Jesus commanded his followers to "watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed." Sorry, Mr. Gekko, but greed is not good for us.
In the 2002 book "Affluenza," co-authors John DeGraaf, David Wann and Thomas Naylor, describe our national affliction as "a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more."
"I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them! The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed -- for lack of a better word - is good. Greed is right. Greed works."
"Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit ... And greed - you mark my words - will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much."
Oops.This week as the Dow plummeted, 13,000 news stories included the word "greed" in summarizing our nation's current crisis, economic and otherwise:
1. Four Merrill Lynch executives pocketed $121 million in bonuses just before taxpayers helped finance a takeover of the failing firm.
2. Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, one sportswriter said, typifies the belief that living in America is to be part of a culture in which nothing is ever enough and the end (sports stardom) justifies the means (illegal steroids).
3. One book review of "Death by Leisure," (by Chris Ayres, the Hollywood correspondent for The Times of London) describes how Ayres found his life in California to be fiscally confusing as the local culture lured him into living large and introduced him to his "inner big spender."
In an age of greed, it is sobering to note that every religious tradition rejects greed. Hinduism's sacred Bhagavad Gita warns that "Hell has three gates: lust, anger, and greed." Buddha observed that "there is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed." Jesus commanded his followers to "watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed." Sorry, Mr. Gekko, but greed is not good for us.
In the 2002 book "Affluenza," co-authors John DeGraaf, David Wann and Thomas Naylor, describe our national affliction as "a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more."
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