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MineralMan

(146,317 posts)
Fri Dec 21, 2018, 04:26 PM Dec 2018

Is Greed the main source of conflict in the world?

Sex? Property? Territory? Food? Boundaries? Personal Appearance? Etiquette?

I think religion is way down the list when it comes to conflict. Most conflict begins on a person to person basis. Someone doesn't like someone else's looks. Someone is envious of stuff another person has. Someone doesn't have a mate, but someone else does. Someone parked his car on your driveway. Those brown people who live over there are sneaking into your territory. Someone didn't say thank you when you helped them.

Greed and acquisitiveness seems to me to be the primary source of conflict between individuals, and even between tribes and nations, in one way or another. You need some copper to do something, but you don't have any. Your neighboring area, though, has copper. You want it, but they don't want to let you have it. So, you kill them.

Or you come to some new shores in your big boat, only to find some brown people already living there. So you drive them off or kill them.

Your neighbor got busy and planted a bunch of strawberry plants and the ripe fruit really looks good to you, but his wife is going to make jam out of all of it and your neighbor won't give you any. So, you sneak out at night, pick a quart of them and then stomp all the rest down so there won't be any jam.

Heck, remember when your little sister got a bigger piece of pie for desert than you did. Unfair! So you hit her. Then, your mother came upside your head with a wooden spoon. Damn! That hurt! So you waited until she was out of the room and hit your brother, too. Conflict.

Yeah, religion's way down the list of things that cause conflict. But, still, you got that eternal life stuff, and the guy across the street goes to Hell when he dies, because he goes to the wrong church. Serves him right, the heathen! You've got yours! Say! Maybe you should just kill him and get it over with. Either that or try to convert him to your religion first.

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Is Greed the main source of conflict in the world? (Original Post) MineralMan Dec 2018 OP
No it's domestic theft of cell phone charging accessories populistdriven Dec 2018 #1
Absolutely. But, see how greedy you are about your charger? MineralMan Dec 2018 #3
Yes. Everything else is simply fodder to the fire, so to speak, e.g., use religion to help stir... SWBTATTReg Dec 2018 #2
Well, they're all heathens, so it's OK to take their stuff. MineralMan Dec 2018 #5
Fear. Pretty much all of it comes down to that. n/t TygrBright Dec 2018 #4
Yes, that too. MineralMan Dec 2018 #6
Why greed? violetpastille Dec 2018 #7
I think greed runs a very close second Mme. Defarge Dec 2018 #8
Well, he who has the most junk is the most proud. MineralMan Dec 2018 #9
Agreed! Mme. Defarge Dec 2018 #11
I do not believe it is WAY down the list, but I can't give you concrete numbers. nt Ferrets are Cool Dec 2018 #10
The problem with identifying religion as a source of conflict... trotsky Dec 2018 #12
Greed Power 2 the People Dec 2018 #13
Greed is an inevitable part of evolution, as is religion. cachukis Dec 2018 #14
Recommended. And agreed. eom guillaumeb Dec 2018 #15

populistdriven

(5,644 posts)
1. No it's domestic theft of cell phone charging accessories
Fri Dec 21, 2018, 04:30 PM
Dec 2018

But yes I think most of the hardships people face are in the form of intentional impersonal harm that is fueled by greed

MineralMan

(146,317 posts)
3. Absolutely. But, see how greedy you are about your charger?
Fri Dec 21, 2018, 04:33 PM
Dec 2018

Go steal your daughter's charger. It should be on her bedside table, unless her brother took it. That'll teach your wife! It's greed all the way down.

SWBTATTReg

(22,130 posts)
2. Yes. Everything else is simply fodder to the fire, so to speak, e.g., use religion to help stir...
Fri Dec 21, 2018, 04:31 PM
Dec 2018

up bad feelings so greed can kick in later to seize their crops/water/minerals/etc.

Greed drives it all.

MineralMan

(146,317 posts)
5. Well, they're all heathens, so it's OK to take their stuff.
Fri Dec 21, 2018, 04:36 PM
Dec 2018

Why, they don't even speak the right language, after all. Or maybe they're filthy Catholics or some heretics like that. If they were decent people, they'd be Born-Again Baptists like us, amirite? Let's go get their stuff!

violetpastille

(1,483 posts)
7. Why greed?
Fri Dec 21, 2018, 04:39 PM
Dec 2018

Why that emptiness inside of us that thinks it can be filled with more?

Why do even the richest feel driven by that emptiness?

When you look at a greedy person you are looking at a hungry person.

(I think religion is a cover story wrapped in metaphor. God said, "Just be cool. Eat the fruits and if you need more B12 have some bugs. I got you. Just chill. And we were like..but technology! We can make so much stuff out of this stuff! And God said, "Please don't go there!" And we said, "We're going there." And God said, "Well now you really fucked up. Didn't you?" And so it begins. Brothers killing brothers over..remind me what they were fighting about.?* Just eat the mango and sit down. But no. Now how get back to that Heaven?..hmmm..Circumcision? Pope Hats? Inquisitions? Am I getting warm?)

It's like the Wizard of Oz. We don't have to leave home. We are here. The whole time.


*Cain = Technology = Separation from Nature = Emptiness

MineralMan

(146,317 posts)
9. Well, he who has the most junk is the most proud.
Fri Dec 21, 2018, 04:46 PM
Dec 2018

So it seems in today's culture, doesn't it? I think the two are closely related.

Ferrets are Cool

(21,106 posts)
10. I do not believe it is WAY down the list, but I can't give you concrete numbers. nt
Fri Dec 21, 2018, 04:58 PM
Dec 2018

These are supposedly the 10 deadliest world events in human history. And greed probably tops the list by far.

https://listverse.com/2013/01/03/10-deadliest-world-events-in-human-history/

trotsky

(49,533 posts)
12. The problem with identifying religion as a source of conflict...
Fri Dec 21, 2018, 05:31 PM
Dec 2018

is that it can not only be a source on its own, but a factor that makes any other conflict WORSE.

The two worst aspects of this are:

1. Religion gives divine authority to a position, making compromise harder (if not impossible).
2. Religion provides one's agenda immunity from reason or observation - "faith" trumps those, of course!

cachukis

(2,242 posts)
14. Greed is an inevitable part of evolution, as is religion.
Fri Dec 21, 2018, 07:43 PM
Dec 2018

Psychologists have done the studies that privilege is hard to give up. Greed has been beneficial in advancing penicillin use, while gossip keeps loose lips in check when it gets back to the gossiper and the gossiped about. There is good and bad in the world.

Sister Winifred, while describing rationalization, in my fourth grade catechism, said that it was the worst sin. I thought it was murder, but she replied that the justification of murder was a worse stain on the soul.

Having never forgotten that, I took it a bit further. Vengeance does more to undermine society than any other transgression. It takes rationalization to a level that punishes any challenge to the misdeed.

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