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AnjaHavedalFirstPaper 3 - 28 Feb 2009 - Main.AnjaHavedal
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Greed, Justice, and the 25-Million-Dollar Question | | | The Relationship Between Progress and Greed | |
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< | Western civilization and its progeny are obsessed with progress. Caught in a global rat race, societies compete to build higher skyscrapers, engineer smarter computers, and extend life by means of science and medicine. Similarly, as individuals, we strive for better jobs, fancier homes, more extravagant vacations – yet when we attain the objects of our desire they invariably fail to bring us lasting satisfaction. An impressive paycheck, a bigger house, and higher status bring us pleasure for a fleeting moment, until a new goal takes shape further away. According to the second of Buddhism’s four noble truths, our insatiable thirst is the cause of human pain. In other words, we suffer because we crave. | >
> | Western civilization and its progeny are obsessed with progress. Caught in a global rat race, societies compete to build higher skyscrapers, engineer smarter computers, and extend life by means of science and medicine. Similarly, as individuals, we strive for better jobs, fancier homes, more extravagant vacations – yet when we attain the objects of our desire they invariably fail to bring us lasting satisfaction. An impressive paycheck, a bigger house, and higher status bring us pleasure for a fleeting moment, until a new goal takes shape further away. According to the second of Buddhism’s four noble truths, this insatiable thirst is the cause of human pain. In other words, we suffer because we crave. | | | From the misconception that there is a causal relationship between material wealth and “happiness,” greed is born. Unaware of our confinement to a metaphorical hamster wheel, we pursue what we think is our individual desire for progress and success. Collectively and individually convinced that there is a destination at the end of our “pursuit of happiness,” we run too fast to recognize when we pass the border between progress and greed. Like the proverbial gerbils that we are. |
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| Revision 3 | r3 - 28 Feb 2009 - 17:37:50 - AnjaHavedal? |
| Revision 2 | r2 - 27 Feb 2009 - 23:32:52 - AnjaHavedal? |
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