Contempt

A Thought About Human Nature and Greed

What do you think is human greed? And could it be considered the nature of humanity?

First of all, what is the definition of greed? According to the Oxford Learner's Dictionary; "Greed is a strong desire for more wealth, possessions, power, etc. than a person needs."

However, what drives a person to have the perseverance or desire to achieve things equivalent to the price of the happiness of those that may have been affected by that desire. We all once a time, where we question about our existence, lives, and placement in society. I believe we all had a statement; "I want more".

But, why? The answer is we are all addicted to pleasure. We all want to strive as human beings, to live without worries, to acquire anything when we want to. Because it feels good. For example, If a person buys a Lamborgini, what would they feel? Of course, they'll feel powerful, because they are part of the small margin of people that have the money to obtain it.

They'll feel like a winner in society. That is until they finally hit a wall, and find out that they were not that special. There exist more individuals that have more power and money than they have. But the feeling of materialistic satisfaction can be addicting, greed can also be connected to envy. Because that person that owned the Lamborgini now desires to acquire the riches other people have.

However, it is a mere mask or persona that they wear on themselves. In order for them to "be better" than the other rich individuals, they have to look rich.

It is in our nature the system called survival of the fittest. That system is connected to our desire to win and be at the top of the food chain or society to attain "success". Because success can be measured through many different things. They could be awards, IQ, inventions, houses, cars, and amounts of money.

They desire to achieve "success". Now they desire to buy private jets, large mansions, and more. But, in the end, greed is the mere fuel that feeds the fire called ego. While this phenomenon is called the "Hedonic treadmill", which is the "-tendency of people to keep a fairly stable baseline level of happiness despite external events and fluctuations in demographic circumstances." by Brickman and Campbell in their article, "Hedonic Relativism and Planning the Good Society" (1971).

This is then supported by the now modern revisions of the term, "The hedonic treadmill is a metaphor for the human tendency to pursue one pleasure after another. That's because the surge of happiness that's felt after a positive event is likely to return to a steady personal baseline over time."

That ego is what they use to bring their "Happiness", but happiness is not achieved by the desire to feed materialistic needs, but to be content and grateful for what you can attain, without losing yourself in the pleasure called greed.