‘There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed’ - Gandhi
I do spend some time each week in-between blogs, contemplating the subject, the tone and some key points and just fill the rest with my opinions and observations.
This blog will be the easiest for me to write out of the whole series, as the vision came quite easily.
I am by nature generous, which is of course the synonym of Greed. My habits of over delegating, over empowering, and wealth sharing, do shy me away from avarice. Although there are quite a few people who do complain that I do not give them enough time. However, if I had it and could give it, then surely would hand that over too.
The overriding vision of this blog had to come from an article in a newspaper not so long ago, and the journalist proceeded to describe a scenario quite unbelievable, but summed up man’s appetite for lustful greed.
I am sure that most of you have seen the film Wall Street, a cinematic masterpiece and lives up to its hype. The central character Gordon Gecko (the bad guy) was played by Michael Douglas. It was as the film’s title suggests set in the financial district of New York – Wall Street. Gordon Gecko was a trader, with vast personal wealth and an even bigger thirst to obtain more. His catchphrase was ‘Greed is good’.
To cut a long story short, Michael Douglas was invited for a tour around the trading area of the Dow Jones stock exchange, which I believe is because of an upcoming sequel of the hit film. The moment he stepped onto the floor he was mobbed like a 1960’s Beatle, the traders were beside themselves. They had come face-to-face with their messiah, the chanting which of course is the traders and banker’s mantra is ‘greed is good’, ‘greed is good’, and ‘greed is good’ rung out uncomfortably around the trading floor.
Why was this uncomfortable?
Two weeks before the recession had seen it’s catalyst, with Bear Stearns going under, causing shock waves around the world and every financial institution.
To look at the quote from Ghandi, every man in the world in this crisis did not think that there would be sufficient abundance for their own and families needs, yet how can the world learn from this with institutionalised, aspirational greed.
It is too obvious to use this blog to dig at Bankers, so I want to look at some lower level activities that show the same abhorrence and condescension towards morality.
The first point is one that any parent can relate too. The summer is over and winter is coming closer, and thought of Christmas is never far away. As a parent you need to plan ahead, as the part which brings the most pleasure is providing your siblings with the gift that they desire.
This year my daughter loves ‘Waybuloo’ a children’s TV series on CBeebies (BBC) which she absolutely adores. She is totally enamoured with the Orange ‘Pipling’ Yojojo and verbalises her pleasure at every opportunity. As a new programme the toys have just been released, and as a father the very vision of her face upon opening the Yojojo toy will be my Christmas present.
So where does greed come into this?
There are only a few retailers with the Waybuloo range, so to my surprise (or not) when you go to purchase an item the shelves are cleared out. So as a concerned father you look for the on-line option, only to see the sheer abundance of items that are available on e-bay, however, in some cases 2-3 times the retail price.
I cannot imagine what goes through peoples mind but there behaviour can be described as rapacious. The plundering of children’s toys to sell for excess profit does not fall under the umbrella of ‘Entrepreneur’ but does sit with the more sinister parasol of Extortion.
There is another example of greed which allegedly does come from a good place, but is just manipulation of authority, hoarding and trickery. This behaviour has more negative consequences than good.
As you all are aware the world has a Swine Flu pandemic, and in the UK there has been a variety of fatalities and widespread infection. The Government has moved from an isolate to a treatment phase. There is enough of the drug ‘Tamiflu’ for 50% of the nation, which would be more than enough to control the spread of disease.
Due to being infectious there are several ways how you get diagnosed and obtain the Tamiflu antiviral. The main outlet is the Internet, and you log onto the NHS swine flu website and go through the questions, enter your details and they diagnose your symptoms.
If they match them or near to Swine flu then you are given a unique reference number and a member of family or friend (with your ID) can collect the drug on your behalf free of charge.
Now with Swine Flu the funny thing is, that during the hot spell in August reported cases were dropping but fatalities remained steady. Now with a bit of cold weather coming the cases have now doubled but fatalities dropped. How?
This is because that people are not sick but using the web service to obtain Tamiflu, just in case. At this rate, with my calculation of 8-weeks. The country will run out of the vaccine thus causing widespread panic and accusation of mismanagement.
However, the street price of Tamiflu has just gone up.
Does greed make you happy?
No, all greed does is exaggerate the positive aspects of any object. If no association of happiness is placed on said object then it is reasonable to assume that happiness can be obtained without it.
Another metaphor is someone who buys and wears more and more jewellery. It makes you appear wealthy, displays affluence, the attention to detail is all to see. However, eventually you will conclude that it is what you put inside you and share from inside you which make you happy.
Selflessness, gratitude, generosity, charity are greed’s antonyms and inevitable nemesis. It is just sad that greed battles them so hard.
‘If you haven't got any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble’ - Bob Hope
Last blog in the series next week – Anger!
Thank you for all the messages and comments, please keep them coming
Lots of love
Scott
I do spend some time each week in-between blogs, contemplating the subject, the tone and some key points and just fill the rest with my opinions and observations.
This blog will be the easiest for me to write out of the whole series, as the vision came quite easily.
I am by nature generous, which is of course the synonym of Greed. My habits of over delegating, over empowering, and wealth sharing, do shy me away from avarice. Although there are quite a few people who do complain that I do not give them enough time. However, if I had it and could give it, then surely would hand that over too.
The overriding vision of this blog had to come from an article in a newspaper not so long ago, and the journalist proceeded to describe a scenario quite unbelievable, but summed up man’s appetite for lustful greed.
I am sure that most of you have seen the film Wall Street, a cinematic masterpiece and lives up to its hype. The central character Gordon Gecko (the bad guy) was played by Michael Douglas. It was as the film’s title suggests set in the financial district of New York – Wall Street. Gordon Gecko was a trader, with vast personal wealth and an even bigger thirst to obtain more. His catchphrase was ‘Greed is good’.
To cut a long story short, Michael Douglas was invited for a tour around the trading area of the Dow Jones stock exchange, which I believe is because of an upcoming sequel of the hit film. The moment he stepped onto the floor he was mobbed like a 1960’s Beatle, the traders were beside themselves. They had come face-to-face with their messiah, the chanting which of course is the traders and banker’s mantra is ‘greed is good’, ‘greed is good’, and ‘greed is good’ rung out uncomfortably around the trading floor.
Why was this uncomfortable?
Two weeks before the recession had seen it’s catalyst, with Bear Stearns going under, causing shock waves around the world and every financial institution.
To look at the quote from Ghandi, every man in the world in this crisis did not think that there would be sufficient abundance for their own and families needs, yet how can the world learn from this with institutionalised, aspirational greed.
It is too obvious to use this blog to dig at Bankers, so I want to look at some lower level activities that show the same abhorrence and condescension towards morality.
The first point is one that any parent can relate too. The summer is over and winter is coming closer, and thought of Christmas is never far away. As a parent you need to plan ahead, as the part which brings the most pleasure is providing your siblings with the gift that they desire.
This year my daughter loves ‘Waybuloo’ a children’s TV series on CBeebies (BBC) which she absolutely adores. She is totally enamoured with the Orange ‘Pipling’ Yojojo and verbalises her pleasure at every opportunity. As a new programme the toys have just been released, and as a father the very vision of her face upon opening the Yojojo toy will be my Christmas present.
So where does greed come into this?
There are only a few retailers with the Waybuloo range, so to my surprise (or not) when you go to purchase an item the shelves are cleared out. So as a concerned father you look for the on-line option, only to see the sheer abundance of items that are available on e-bay, however, in some cases 2-3 times the retail price.
I cannot imagine what goes through peoples mind but there behaviour can be described as rapacious. The plundering of children’s toys to sell for excess profit does not fall under the umbrella of ‘Entrepreneur’ but does sit with the more sinister parasol of Extortion.
There is another example of greed which allegedly does come from a good place, but is just manipulation of authority, hoarding and trickery. This behaviour has more negative consequences than good.
As you all are aware the world has a Swine Flu pandemic, and in the UK there has been a variety of fatalities and widespread infection. The Government has moved from an isolate to a treatment phase. There is enough of the drug ‘Tamiflu’ for 50% of the nation, which would be more than enough to control the spread of disease.
Due to being infectious there are several ways how you get diagnosed and obtain the Tamiflu antiviral. The main outlet is the Internet, and you log onto the NHS swine flu website and go through the questions, enter your details and they diagnose your symptoms.
If they match them or near to Swine flu then you are given a unique reference number and a member of family or friend (with your ID) can collect the drug on your behalf free of charge.
Now with Swine Flu the funny thing is, that during the hot spell in August reported cases were dropping but fatalities remained steady. Now with a bit of cold weather coming the cases have now doubled but fatalities dropped. How?
This is because that people are not sick but using the web service to obtain Tamiflu, just in case. At this rate, with my calculation of 8-weeks. The country will run out of the vaccine thus causing widespread panic and accusation of mismanagement.
However, the street price of Tamiflu has just gone up.
Does greed make you happy?
No, all greed does is exaggerate the positive aspects of any object. If no association of happiness is placed on said object then it is reasonable to assume that happiness can be obtained without it.
Another metaphor is someone who buys and wears more and more jewellery. It makes you appear wealthy, displays affluence, the attention to detail is all to see. However, eventually you will conclude that it is what you put inside you and share from inside you which make you happy.
Selflessness, gratitude, generosity, charity are greed’s antonyms and inevitable nemesis. It is just sad that greed battles them so hard.
‘If you haven't got any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble’ - Bob Hope
Last blog in the series next week – Anger!
Thank you for all the messages and comments, please keep them coming
Lots of love
Scott
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