Principle of life — being greedy for gains? The insatiable desire for more?

What is life?

Life is striving for more. Life is hunger for growth, to assimilate more, to consume more, to become more.

For example, let us examine trees. What do trees want? They want to grow taller! They strive for ascendency. They want more sunlight and nutrition and resources, and grow their roots ever deeper, make their bark ever thicker, and make their trunks ever bigger.

Why so much talk about anti greed?

What I desire to combat is our over-obsession about morals and ethics in modern society. Obviously we need some base level morals and ethics for us to live in society to not all kill one another and steal from one another (private property is a good thing). But when we talk about “greed”, what are we really trying to say?

“Greduz” in Porto-German means to desire, to hunger. This word also comes from “ger” (Proto-Indo-European) which means “to yearn for”. Related terms include “horior” (to encourage, to urge), and “khairo” (to be happy and full of cheer, to rejoice)— all which are really great notions!

My thought — when we are “greedy” for something, the root notion is to literally be hungry for food. But perhaps in the past, when we ate “too much food” (beyond what was necessary for survival), it did a positive harm to our clansmen who also needed to eat food to survive. But in today’s world of hyper-abundance, because I eat a pound of meat doesn’t mean you starve. I can eat a pound of meat, and so can you! This brave new world has a theoretical unlimited pie.

Why gain?

Many of us have been told the commandment:

Thou shalt be small. Thou shalt not speak up. Thou shalt obey. Thou shalt take up as little room as possible, and thou shalt be as small of a nuisance to others.

In Chinese (the root of a lot of Asian thought), there is a notion called “小心” (small heart) which can be translated in many different ways — be careful, pay attention to the small details, etc. But etymologically speaking, I find this notion interesting:

Thou shalt have a small heart.

In what physiological sense is having a small heart a good thing? If we think about great warriors and leaders — don’t we consider them having a great heart, a big heart, and a grand heart?

Greed and dissatisfaction are different

In the past, I used to believe it was dissatisfaction which spurred us forward and towards action. Now I believe in more subtlety. It isn’t “dissatisfaction” (negative emotion) which is the spur. It is “greed” (positive emotion) which is the spur.

But once again — let us not think the word “greed” or “greedy” in moralistic “evil” terms. Greed is the natural human desire for more— and we should delight in this!

Because if we didn’t desire more, or if we weren’t greedy for more, wouldn’t we all still be in caves eating acorns, instead of making artwork with digital hyper computers, and inventing things on the internet?

ERIC