Greed

[Y2A]

Do you believe that greed is a natural human emotion???

[monkeydust]

Well.......no I don't.

I don't disregard human nature entirely, I don't believe however, that greed is an inherent drive for humans, i don't think it is part of our 'nature'.

[Dirty Commie]

I think that there is no hardwired natural instict in humans, greed or the want to place the common good over self interest. Some people are naturaly inclined to place the interest of others ahead of themselves, and some people are inclined towards greed. There has never been any conclusive, unbiased study to support either side. Prehistoric humans have been discovered to have lived in an organized, collective society with no form of government, and so some people say that in a modernized world, greed was neccasrary to promote the development we have, but they fail to see what has happned in the last three centuries with modern capitalism: wars of unprecedented magnitude, crime, environmental crisis, etc ( even though ther has been many great things sprouting from this, such as medicine, knowledge of the world around us, etc.). So I think that certain people are naturaly greedy, possibly as a result of being taught so by parents, probably just random orgainzation of brain cells. In my brief existence, I've noticed two things make people believe in what they do, parental influence, and peer influence. I don't think that there is a way to show whether or not people are naturaly greedy or naturaly not greedy.

[mia wallace]

no, it's not quite natural. i believe it developed because of the society we live in - capitalism.
since the goal in capitalism is to have as much as you can, greed is the 'perfect' emotian for that.

[monkeydust]

A question back to Y2A

Suppose greed, selfishness and self-interest are 'natural' human charicteristics.

Should we necessarily encourage such traits simply because they're 'natural'? Is what's natural necessarily what's desirable?

There's just as much evidence for violence being 'natural'as there is for greed. Wars such as WW1 can in part be attributed to base territorial instincts, only on a grand scale. If such things as violence are 'natural' for humans. Should we encourage this as well?

I don't believe greed is natural. If it is, then I feel it can still be overcome.

[Pedro Alonso Lopez]

Originally posted by mia [email protected] 4 2004, 11:26 PM
no, it's not quite natural. i believe it developed because of the society we live in - capitalism.
since the goal in capitalism is to have as much as you can, greed is the 'perfect' emotian for that.

I dont think capitalism is the cause of greed, that is absurd.

Greed is as old as man but under capitalism it is given a place in human nature that it shouldnt have.

It is essentially accentuated under capitalism.

[Vinny Rafarino]

there is no such thing as a "greed gene".

[Don't Change Your Name]

Greed is just a reaction to an environment where once you run out of resources you die. So humans just try to get as much as they can of everything to guarantee that they will survive. To give a stupid example, try playing one of those strategy games like Age of Empires and you will see that once you conquer an area you inmediately start thinking about "conquering" another one, but you try to defend what you built there.
It's impossible to prove that greed is "human nature" because it's just an instinct to survive in an hostile world where there is a shortage of resources. Do you think that if it would be impossible to run out of resources people would go around talking about "human nature" are cappies do? I don't think so.

[Solace]

Should we necessarily encourage such traits simply because they're 'natural'? Is what's natural necessarily what's desirable?

It’s not about encouraging them. It’s about how we should deal with them so they don’t affect negatively the system around.

If it’s natural to humans, then you are basically screwed in trying to eliminate it.

Should the system repress greed or allowed it to be expressed? In a communist society, it might not be about accumulating wealth but rather about hiding it, make it available to a select few. No?

[mia wallace]

Originally posted by Geist+Mar 5 2004, 12:45 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Geist @ Mar 5 2004, 12:45 AM)
mia [email protected] 4 2004, 11:26 PM
no, it&#39;s not quite natural. i believe it developed because of the society we live in - capitalism.
since the goal in capitalism is to have as much as you can, greed is the &#39;perfect&#39; emotian for that.

I dont think capitalism is the cause of greed, that is absurd.

Greed is as old as man but under capitalism it is given a place in human nature that it shouldnt have.

It is essentially accentuated under capitalism. [/b]
i think people were greedy before, but definitely not as much as now. maybe not in the sence which word &#39;greesd&#39; has today - i tkink they wanted to have enough to be sure they will survive and live fine, but today greedy people would steel just to have mere then someone else, not because they need something.
at least, that&#39;s the way i see it... :ph34r:

[SittingBull47]

I agree with Mia. Society puts an emphasis on greed, everybody makes it seem natural because they subconciously concern themselves with attaining as much of something as possible.

[Rasta Sapian]

Its only natural if you are a brainwashed capitalist with dreams of becoming a Fat Cat someday&#33;

Impirialism is breeding pigs&#33; And pigs leave alot of shit around&#33;

[MiDnIgHtMaRaUdEr]

I think greed is natural, but so is jealousy, hate, and a various other negative feelings. Just because people might be greedy is not justification to allow them to plunder the human race, just as if just a because a person is jealous, we will let them go and kill that person. It is part of our job as communists to show people that doing the best for everyone as a whole is better then trying to have everyone take care of themselves and constantly hurting each other and causing us to fail as a whole.

[Misodoctakleidist]

What do you mean by "natural"?

I assume you mean instinctive in which case i don&#39;t think greed is instinctive. I think we need to define some terms before we can discuss this properly; greed is to take more than you need, instinct is a blind tendency to some mode of action, independent of any consideration, on the part of the agent, of the end to which the action leads.

The purpose of an instinct to help the continuation of the human species and so an instinct must by definition increase your chances of reproduction in every possible situation since instinct is independent of consideration on the part of the agent. It must be asked then how greed, taking more than you need, can be advantageous in every situation or even how it can be advantageous in any situation since to be so it would have to be needed and therefor not geed.

It is easy to imagine a situation in which greed would not be advantageous or a situation in which it would be a hinderence which suggests that greed, although it may be driven by instinct, is dependant on enviromental factors. If greed is prevelent in society it is becuase that society makes it feasable to be greedy otherwise greed would not exist since i have already demonstated that it isn&#39;t instinctive.