Understanding 'Greed'

patheos.com:

Greed (1924) is a classic silent film by the German director, Erich von Stroheim, although no one alive has seen its full nine hours, and few have seen the reconstructed version acclaimed as a masterpiece. Like the similarly-themed but more recent There Will Be Blood, Greed explores the ultimate results of what Augustine called "disordered desire." What happens to us when we enshrine "Mine!" and "I deserve" as our core beliefs? Greed tells us.

Read the whole story: patheos.com

Comments

[SangZe]

12:09 PM on 11/28/2010

Greed is a christian virtue.

[olmossy]

09:18 PM on 12/01/2010

No , I don't think so, allthough many who claim to be Christians are aflicted by it. So are many "Buddhist and Moslems". But I don't see anywhere that Buddha or Jesus taught in favor of Greed. Someone else will have to comment on Mohammed.

[Midnightrain]

11:25 AM on 12/03/2010

So is revenge, hostility and small mindedness.

[researcher]

04:15 AM on 11/23/2010

greed is based in ignorance.

ignorance is based in innocence.

innocence is based in manifested uniqueness.

uniqueness demands our unawareness.

unawarness is a necessity for unique expressions..

infinite expressions mandate a relative phenomena world.

infinite is infinite and has no origin.

[gcarl]

10:23 AM on 11/23/2010

researcher, wow, I like 'uniqueness demands unawareness'--resulting in greed for that part of me which is non-existent = ego.
Alan Watts defines infinite as a point. A point has no origin because it has no existence.

[chipchuck]

03:52 PM on 11/22/2010

Greed causes suffering.

[olmossy]

09:20 PM on 12/01/2010

Fear and insecurity cause greed.

[turfkiller]

10:39 AM on 11/22/2010

"Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, the court ruled that a corporation is a person" is factually incorrect. Bancroft Davis, court reporter and former president of Newburgh and New York Railway was permitted based on his own judgement to add it to the headnotes.

However the Robert's court will take this and elevate the rights of groups equal or elevated above the rights of the individual. The Roberts court will not distinguish religous corporations from anything different than other corporations in the 1886 case.

The Roberts court will continue to create rights for groups like their God created the universe, from nothing.

[midway31688]

09:21 AM on 11/22/2010

Pray for our church leader Today? Con man Preacher will bust Hell Wide open? god on High looking at these rats stealing in the name of the church? Preacher Turn out to be Hustler stealing living high on the hog? god will smack those false Preacher Down PONZI. scams Operatot? these guys are well Polish?

[midway31688]

09:11 AM on 11/22/2010

what the hell. bishop eddie long thinking about going with those young boys it a Bishop in Baltmore md in trouble with some women in his church? Church Leader have to keep their nose Clean What wrong with the men of Gods? mcfarland wi smal church have church mother raise Money by selling Dinner to Keep the Doors Opens? Were the money Going is Fraud in the church the Pastor Wife Control Money? We have Ponzi Scams in the Church todays worlds/ Bishop E. Williams

[rtb61]

08:21 AM on 11/22/2010

Greed, it is not about how much you have, it is about how much more you have than those around you. The reality is in order to have more, you must work towards those around you having less, you real goal the impoverishment of those around you, the poorer they are the richer you are.
It sounds bad, it sounds sick, because it is insane behaviour in a social collective species that achieves their mutual goals by working together, apart from a mentally deranged few who choose instead prey on around them rather than work with them.
The worst crime of the 20th century the glorification of greed by mass media and all the harm that it brought, wars and the corruption human society into something too often inhumane.

[WoodsideCraig]

12:49 AM on 11/22/2010

I didn't find the article especially informative.

[Linda Williams]

04:01 PM on 11/22/2010

It appears to be a reminder that it is disastrous to follow the Victorian Age God Helps Those Who Help Themselves is directly proportional to how tight you are with God. Greed runs onto the scene when this position is present. And then there is no end to how much a person feels they "deserve". The bog revival of this started in the 90's and has continued through today. Example, those who lost their homes should have known they would be overspending. The "poor" were not the only ones to do this, the greater number were people of what we could call upper middle class. Houses too big and credit cards maxed. It is easier to kick someone shorter than yourself.

[CoastalNC]

01:13 PM on 11/23/2010

And unfortunately when some of those people kick the ones shorter than them, it is to make themselves feel so much taller....sad!!

[Swiftlearner]

08:56 PM on 11/21/2010

According to Gekko, "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures, the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind and greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the U.S.A"
Now is " Looking for the last lost sheep, even the other 99 of them are save.' a form of greed?
Is cutting out your eyes, if it cause your body to sin, a form of excess?
Were asking the Israeli to kill all animal and human being in the Promise land for total domination, an extreme form of greed?

[chipchuck]

03:51 PM on 11/22/2010

Though we're speaking of metephor, I'll take a stab at it.

The parable of the lost sheep is not intended to be understood as the shephard going to get the lost one because of greed. It is a metephor to imply that we should never leave a fellow behind. If one becomes "lost" we should reach out to them.

To pluck out your eye would be considered extreme, yes. But in the sense that if you view something that causes you to immorality... let's say you have a problem with child pornography, if everytime you look at your PC you think about it, the metephorical equivalent to "plucking out your eye" would be to get rid of your PC. This parable is to say, if you recognize something in the world that leads you to wrong, seek to not look for it. Remove it from your sight.

The Israel/Promised Land thing...yeah that's just greed. :) The problem with Gekko was it was a romantisized character. Douglas looked all sexy and powerful and he glorified this idea of more more more. To have more, means you must take from another. The example of Christ was total giving.