Carnival Lust, Capitalist Greed And Counterproductive Christian Finger-Wagging

Dear Frances,

If you poke around the links in the "Greed" post below, you get a sense of how important it is to redirect America's attention from standard moralizing about "the carnal sin of lust" to the much more momentous moral issue, the overlooked "spiritual sin of greed."

The Seven Deadly Sins Revisited: Greed

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-seven-deadly-sins-revisited-greed.html

Capitalist Pigs And Avarice - The Pathognomic "Deadly Sin" Of Our Age

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/12/capitalist-pigs-and-avarice-deadly-sin.html

Trump's Full-Throttled Promotion Of Greed, Traditionally One Of Christianity's "7 Deadly Sins"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2016/09/trumps-full-throttled-promotion-of.html

Americans are well aware that lust is condemned by every major religion - Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism.

But who among us is even theoretically aware that greed is "really" a sin, and not only a sin but the pathognomic sin of our age, the sin pumped by capitalist steroids to fertilize all the others?

Greed is the cornerstone of capitalism. 

It is, in fact, the sine qua non, summum bonum of Capitalism. 

It is America's vocation.

And America's avocation.

It is the air we breathe.

It is the central nutrient of our metabolism.

It is the toxic well from which we drink.

It is our daily bread. 

In 1987, Wall Street tycoon Gordon Gekko put it bluntly, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” 

"Inside Job"

Oscar Winning Documentary

Free online - with Spanish subtitles.

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2011/10/daily-dose-october-152011.html

Rising from this foundational vice is the wrath-of-war adrenalized by Uncle Sam as he beats the drum to "corner markets" or at least "dominate them." 

"Do Wars Really Defend America's Freedom?"

(Homage To Marine Commandant, Major General Smedley Butler)

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/11/major-general-smedley-butler-do-wars.html

Why We Love Violence And Pump It Even Though It Rarely Works And Is Typically Counterproductive
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/04/why-we-love-violence-pump-it-even.html

"We Like War"

Video

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/09/george-carlin-we-like-war-because-were.html

"Why We Fight," Excellent Documentary With Ike's "Military-Industrial Complex" As Springboard

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/03/why-we-fight-excellent-documentary-with.html

Scare The Sheep 

And They Will Applaud Military-Industrial Profiteering

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/12/scare-sheep-and-they-will-cheer.html

American "Patriotism": Why So Many Americans Are Fundamentally Violent And Paranoid

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/04/american-patriotism-why-so-many.html

The Age-Old Normalization Of Warfare Through Stupidity, Ego And Religion

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-age-old-normalization-of-warfare.html

The Mistaken Concept That Reducing Cultures To Rubble Results In Peace

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-mistaken-concept-that-reducing.html

Or take the egregious case of Smirk and Snarl's Whimsy War in Iraq whose most discernible purpose was to protect America's oil supply. 

Speaking of which... "Just how did our oil end up under their sand?"

Here's how:

"Bush's Toxic Legacy In Iraq"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/06/bushs-toxic-legacy-in-iraq.html

In the tossup between avoidable belligerence inflamed by greed-wrath -- and the eminently forgivable sin of lust -- the choice is "No Contest."

I do not deny the moral degradation that accompanies lust but would refocus our attention from lust to greed, contextualizing these vices in ways that put "first things first" (which was Chesterton's definition of religion).

"Shark Attacks Rise Worldwide: Risk Assessment And Aquinas' Criteria For Sin. The Central Importance Of Perspective And Proportion

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/02/shark-attacks-rise-worldwide-risk.html

St. Paul says, "the love of money is the source of all evil," an observation that bypasses the sin of pride, traditionally viewed as the cardinal sin.  

The normalization of greed is attributable to capitalist pigs who, at every turn, use sex-to-sell, making greed a much more fundamental sin than lust which, after all, is based on humankind's most powerful biological urge and therefore will remain evermore an eminently forgivable stumbling block.

It is easy to "overlook the obvious." Capitalism promotes all The Deadly Sins - envy, lust, gluttony, wrath -- all sins-of-excess arising from the core sin (almost universally ignored) of greed which compulsively demands "More!" to the exclusion of the only predicate of peace... the ability to say "Enough." (Or, better yet, "Less is more.")

The taproot is greed.

If we only prune the branches - envy, lust and gluttony - while ignoring the origin of greed we make the plant more vigorous as happens in orchards, vineyards and gardens when leaves and branches are pruned. 

For a crystalline glimpse of greed's twin justification of Trickle Down Economics and Income Inequality, read this article by Nobel Laureate, Joseph Stiglitz.

"Of The 1%, By The 1%, For The 1%,"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/02/of-1-by-1-for-1-nobel-laureate-joseph.html

This is serious business.

Deadly serious business.

On the other hand, every counterproductive finger-wagger would loosen up around the carnal sins of Carnival and instead wag their fingers at greed, the world would be a better place.

Not perfect.

Not perfect by a long shot.

Just measurably better.

Love

Alan

"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice.  The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization.  We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal.  Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good.  The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”  

"Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton

More Merton Quotes

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/04/merton-best-imposed-as-norm-becomes.html