“Hell has three gates: lust, anger and greed.”
Vyasa, Mahābhārata महाभारतम्
"There is no calamity greater than lavish desires, there is no greater guilt than discontentment, and there is no greater disaster than greed".
Lao tzu, Tao Te Ching, trans by Wing Tsit Chan
"Those who want to be wealthy are falling into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all evil, and some people in their craving for it were led away from the faith, and have pierced themselves with many sorrows."
1 Timothy 6:9-10
"Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction."
Erich Fromm, Escape From Freedom
"From top to bottom of the ladder, greed is aroused without knowing where to find ultimate foothold. Nothing can calm it, since its goal is far beyond all it can attain. Reality seems valueless by comparison with the dreams of fevered imaginations; reality is therefore abandoned."
Emile Durkheim, Suicide
"Greed is not good. Greed is a disease, an aberration of simple honest ambition and necessary provision taken to excess. This simple distinction may be lost on a people no longer able to distinguish between virtue and sin, honor and expediency, appetite and gluttony, the means and the ends.
Every great religion, every school of philosophy has cautioned throughout history on the perils of unbridled and unregulated greed. And yet this generation would make a god of it, although they may not understand, or care, what it is that they are doing, and whom it is they serve.
Greed, often in company with hubris and fear, is a handmaiden of the corrupting influence of power and triumph of the will. Greed is contagious, and attacks the very contentment of society at its heart, turning it towards oligarchy and oppression.
What the US has today is not market capitalism that predominantly rewards the merits and work of individuals, but rather is the product of dishonest and disordered minds, a system of fraud and plunder by privileged oligarchs masquerading as fair and honest markets of legitimate valuation and price discovery."
Jesse, Greed Is Not Good, 19 December 2010
Did you know that, on average, US billionaires pay an effective tax rate of less than 9%? And many thousands are suffering and dying for the lusts of those driven mad by greed?
The worldly elite are in the grip of a proud madness, that has been slowly growing for many years, when their wisdom declared that 'greed is good' and that this is what we deserve, so we may take it.
Watch, and draw an example from it, as another destroys themselves with cravings for land and power, and the madness of a few. And perhaps we may yet turn from this path of war and devastation and return again to the light.
Parliament passed an assisted suicide act today, that many said was seriously flawed and open to abuse.
It could perhaps be their way of solving the problem they created by cutting the heat in winter for their sick and elderly, in order to pursue wars in other lands without purpose in pursuit of personal wealth and lost glories. It would have been better for them if they had been collared and tossed into the sea.
Stocks bounced on light holiday volume.
Gold and silver rallied back after an obvious sell off for the recent Comex options expiration.
VIX has fallen to what recently can be defined as 'complacency.'
The Dollar fell back from its recent highs.
But even in the darkness there is light.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday yesterday. The parents told the children to sit and be quiet, and the spirit told them to 'wiggle.' With great enthusiasm.
It was an organized chaos at times, but my angel god-daughter and capable son somehow made it all work. It was one of the best Thanksgiving dinners ever.
And for this I am grateful, as always, for His loving kindness and tender mercies.
Have a pleasant weekend.
