Desire, the beginning of human troubles
"The money powers prey
upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of
adversity. It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than
autocracy, and more selfish than, bureaucracy. It denounces as public
enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes."
-
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States of America.
Man, though born with the ability to become god and promote the
well-being of his race throughout the world, more often than not,
becomes a being full of envy, lust, and low cunning. As a result, he
adopts pathetic ways to make a living by working upon the pride,
prejudices, and weaknesses of the people on whom he pries to aggregate
their wealth unto himself. There is nothing more despicable and pathetic
than he who devotes all the hours of the waking day to the making of
money for money's sake, in this fashion.
The power to make money is a gift that should be developed and used
to the best of one's ability for the good of humanity. Who all is
endowed with the gift of making money; it is his duty to, make money and
still more money; and to use the money he makes, for the good of him and
of his fellow man according to the dictates of his conscience. There is
no other quality, as essential to happiness of any kind as the quality
of the gift of giving. It overcomes almost everything, even nature, and
provides the happiness men seek.
It is wrong to assume that men of immense wealth are always happy,
for happiness is not a purchasable commodity. No amount of money can
guarantee happiness.
Whilst men may be happy chasing after wealth, they desperately look
for happiness in the emptiness of their life after a life long pursuit
of wealth.
Desperate people make themselves incredibly vulnerable. This
vulnerability propels them on, on an insatiable search for enough that
is never enough; and the search for enough becoming a ritual of the
search for abundance, even if one's life does not consist in the
abundance of possessions.
Values
Our relationship with money, and the use of money, reveals a great
deal about our values. Money can set us free and enslave us. Money can
become a particularly insidious evil, or it can serve as a very useful
tool in the world. Whereas, it is a guarantee that we may have what we
want in the future and insures the possibility of satisfying a new
desire when it arrives; for many, money becomes an idol of worship and
root cause of all evil. We see it in our own culture as we pursue
economic growth, no matter the cost to ourselves, the overall well-being
of the nation, its people, and their values.
We do not realise that there is no social system that will bring us
happiness, health, and prosperity; unless, such a system is inspired by
something other than materialism and greed.
Lacking such inspirational thinking, "enough" becomes always more
than what we have right now; and scarcity becomes the lens through which
we see the world.
If we reflect on the place of money in our culture, how we ascribe
worth and value to our ways of thinking; we will recognise how
uncomfortable we are about our relationship with money and its use as a
reflection of one's values.
Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into
many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and
destruction.
Thus, the starting point of all human troubles is desire; and it
starts with the desire to be rich.
Every man strives for a luxurious lifestyle. Some people are born
with a silver spoon and some make it to top with their own efforts. Yet,
some people make money when blood is running in the streets. Some others
make it by sucking blood out of people, like leeches.
The poor convert organs into money: selling kidney, lung, liver, and
blood, to solve their poverty. The rich force the poor into poverty; and
then, convert the poverty of the poor into wealth. Some even sell
themselves for various purposes in order to make money.
The world is full of parasites of the human kind; and like organism
that live on another organism, such humans habitually exploits others -
his fellow men - to become rich, giving nothing in return to the society
in which they live; and thinking nothing of the men they exploit or the
manner of their attainment.
In fact, the majority of the human race can be, classified as
parasitic from the way they treat their host planet, the earth; use up
its resources, despoil its environment. Such behaviour is, ingrained in
their habits.
Virus
We are like a virus, a disease, a cancer of this planet. Look at the
shameless way in which some politicians exploit the achievements of
others.
What better example do we need: They behave as if it is they who had
accomplished or were solely responsible for the other's attainments, and
achievements; but run a distant mile away from failures - their own or
not.
Does this not reflect the qualities of a parasite: an obsequious
sycophant who thrives on, and at, another's expense?
Man has for so long travelled the worn paths of accepted success that
he has forgotten that, only by striking out new paths, success could be,
repeatedly and reputedly achieved. However, to attain thus, one also
needs to experience the nurturing companionship of a wise counsel rather
than behave like, the know-alls of aspirants to power.
They do not try to let, what is unfair teach them; instead, they
would rather be unfair and greedy.
Unlike in an ecosystem, a place of perfect balance, in which
organisms living within the system have leant to live and let live, even
if predatory, humans live by greed and give nothing back.
In an ecosystem, the predatory instinct creates the balance.
There, the worms eat fungi, insects eat worms, mice eats insects, owl
eats mice, fungi eats dead owl; thus giving rise to the cycle of life;
whereas, most humans want to apportion all to themselves, prying upon
the weakness and vulnerability of other humans, and aggregate what
belongs to the other, unto themselves: a pathetic way to make a living.
Puberty
Yet, they pretend to a spiritual puberty that does not exist in them.
The great horror of their life is in the engagement of the self
within the shackles of greed and gluttony; and the realisation that
there is nothing else left for them in life.
Finally, they burn with hunger for the recognition of goodness in
them that does not exist; and die in the toxic, paralysing,
self-consciousness.
Indeed a pathetic way to, live and die, if there ever was one.
For views, reviews, encomiums, and brickbats:
[email protected]
|