by
RichardF. Taflinger
Thispage has been accessed 
since28 May 1996.
Forfurther readings, I suggest going to the Media and CommunicationsStudies website.
Greed has a strong biologicalbasis. However, it has an even stronger social basis. This sets it somewhatapart from self-preservation and reproduction. To examine greed and how it fitsinto human sociology, we need to start from the beginning.
The definition of greed is an extreme orexcessive desire for resources, especially for property such as money, realestate, or other symbols of wealth. Here we run into two problems: defining excessive, and defining wealth, especially in terms of humanpsychology.
In basic terms, "excessive" is possessing something to such a degree it's harmful. Forexample, excessive drinking leads to falling down a lot and hating yourself inthe morning. Excessive eating leads to bellyaches and obesity. Excessive speedleads to cliff edges and telephone poles. These are aspects that most people wouldagree are harmful.
However, all these things are harmful only tothe individual. How could a desire for wealth be harmful? Every person needs adegree of wealth to survive: you need to buy food, pay the rent, get clothing, transportation, haircuts, cable TV. Withoutmoney (a symbol of wealth, or rather a transportable symbol of resourcesnecessary to survival) you could starve or freeze to death, something that isdefinitely harmful. In addition, the more wealth you have, the better thequantity and/or quality of the things it brings you can get. Again, how could adesire for wealth, and thus the things it gets you, be harmful?
The answer lies in the fact that humans aresocial and cultural animals, not just individuals. Although for the individualgreed (a strong desire for wealth) is good, the social group that individualbelongs to may think greed is bad for rher. Note I say "bad for rher"-- not necessarily bad for the society or the culture or the group, but forrher, which is as good an opening as I can think of for going into the historyof greed.
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Once upon a time there was a littlesingle-cell organism. We'll call it Herman. Herman spent its life wanderingaimlessly around its waterdrop, dreaming littleone-cell dreams and searching for even littler one-cell food. One day Herman,who had been getting rather fat, suddenly felt itself torn asunder and becametwo Hermettes (meaning "little Hermans"). The Hermettes thought thiswas a good idea, and realized that getting fat would result in even more Hermettes.Thus the Hermettes strove to get more food and become fat Hermans, and becomeHermettes, who also strove to get more food, and become fat Hermans, etc.,etc., etc..
Soon the water drop, and surrounding waterdrops, and large chunks of ocean, were filled with Hermans and Hermettes, allgulping down (metaphorically speaking, since they didn't have throats) everypiece of food they could find. In other words, they were greedy, ensuring theirown survival and ability to reproduce by devouring everything they could findthat would result in more Hermettes.
Herman, and its descendants, and theirdescendants, kept this up for a couple of billion years, greedily grasping forthose resources that ensured personal and genetic survival.
Eventually, some of Herman's descendantsdiscovered that they could cope with conditions better is they found a way toevolve faster and weed out mutations that got in the way of survival. Theydeveloped sex.
Finally, Herman's descendants were greedilygulping fruits, nuts, berries, and anything else that came to a paw that wasbecoming a hand. Several of them had banded together to form a mutualnonaggression pact. Among them were Oog and Ugh, who were hoping to have alittle Ugly of their own. Reaching for another apple, Oog suddenly had her protohand slapped. Popping the offended member in hermouth, she looked askance at her attacker. Aagh pointed to her own little Yugh,who was looking thin and hungry. Oog looked, thenback-protohanded Aagh off the branch, took the apple, and scarfedit down. The rest of the band, observing this subtle interplay of diplomaticreasoning, decided that such selfishness required discussion. However, sincethey hadn't yet evolved language, they simply beat up Oog, and for good measureUgh, with a few swipes at Aagh for having started the whole mess. Then theysent Oog and Ugh forth to go and sin with some other group but leave us alone.
Such discouragement discouraged Oog and Ugh,but they knew deep down that the more resources they collected and kept forthemselves, they better off they, and when Ugly came along, all three of themwould be. They competed for resources better than others, passed on more oftheir own genes, and in general became human beings.
However, human beings are gregarious creatures,wishing to band into mutual admiration societies and avoid inbreeding. We gettogether for protection, for support, to share the work necessary for survival,and to have someone to talk to.
In addition, the resources important tohumans changed. No longer was it simply food in order to get and keep thestrength to procreate. Now there were other things, like land to grow food, andmoney to buy food, and pottery to store food, and methods such as ships andcaravans and trading and military conquest to get food. Eventually, the foodwas not the end result desired -- the means to the end became the end itself.
The real problem arose when the populationincreased and the possible wealth became limited. There was only so much landand money and other resources to go around. Thus, for one person to amass a lotof wealth, rhe had to reduce what somebody else could get. This createdconflict in the society between the haves and have-nots, the go-getters and theno-getters.
The purpose of a society is to reduceconflict between the members of that society. The society creates laws,religions, government, whatever will allow people to get along without fightingeach other in response to their biological urges. Thus, there are laws andreligious proscriptions against murder to keep people from killing each otherand thus weakening the society's ability to support itself and the people init. There are laws and religious proscriptions against infidelity to keep menfrom killing each other and enslaving women so men can be sure of theirpaternity (a biological imperative -- a male doesn't want to waste hisresources and care on genes that aren't his (Daly, 1983), and men are male).
To reduce the conflict greed could create,societies, through their laws and religions, said that an extreme desire forwealth was harmful to the society since it concentrated too many resources intoo few hands. Thus greed was decreed and decried as excessive and harmful, andproscribed.
The ancient proscriptions were to avoidsocietal conflicts. The proscriptions were also often easy to follow whenpeople were nomadic. They had to carry everything they owned around with them,and thus there was little desire to accumulate things that would simplyincrease the burden. For example, the !Kung people of
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The desire for wealth is especially apparentin those cultures descended from or adhering to the Western European traditionof "progress" and "growth", a legacy of the eras ofscientific discovery and world exploration. The former led people to believethat they could know everything, the latter increasedwhat they knew and opened the world to trade.
Trade became a major factor in European life afterthe Black Death, a plague that killed three-fourths of
With the new high-demand products, such asspices, tea and silk, made available by world exploration, trade andexploitation of markets became the goals of European societies and individualsin those societies. This continues to this day. The standard of living for themembers of societies practicing such materialism gives them a major advantageover those people and societies that don't. They can gather more resources,live longer, raise more children in better conditions that can pass on theirparents' and ancestors' genes, and generally outstrip any competition thatdoesn't practice greed.
Today, because of the standard of livingmaterialism provides those who follow the idea that some is good, more isbetter, too much is just right, much of the world"goes for the gold". Thus, although legal and religious proscriptionsagainst greed have been in effect and given at least lip service for millennia,the fact remains that, as it was for Oog and Ugh, deep down inside peoplebelieve "greed is good". It might be disguised as capitalism,expanding the range of possibilities, or enlightened self-interest, but deepdown inside it's greed.(1)
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Why then, if greed is not only biologicallydesirable but socially and societally desirable aswell, does greed have such a bad name? It goes back to the fact that humans aresocial and cultural animals, not just individuals.
Remember that greed is a valuable trait forthe individual. It makes rher fight for a larger piece of the pie, a good ideafrom a biological point of view. However, since humans are social creatures,and greed says that an individual should take more than rher own share, greedcreates social conflict, as those who lose out resent those who win more thanan even share. Those that are particularly greedy (read, particularly good atgetting larger pieces of pies) are particularly resented. Recall Donald Trumpand Leona Helmsley: many people cheered theirdownfalls. After all, who did they think they were? Besidessuccessful, rich, competent, and capable. They were also manipulative,vain, egotistical and arrogant. However, how many people would, if they werehonest, have changed places with them in a second, at least while the Donaldand Leona were at their peak? Why are lotteries and sweepstakes so successful?Why do
The thing to bear in mind is that "greedis good." That is, it's good for the individual, but perhaps not for thesociety in which that individual lives. Unrestrained greed in an individual canlead to callousness, arrogance, and even megalomania. A person dominated bygreed will often ignore the harm their actions can cause others. Sweat shops,unsafe working conditions and destruction of livelihoods are all consequencesof people whose personal greed overcame their social consciences.
However, even a society that bans individualgreed can suffer. It is greed that makes people want to do things, since theywill be rewarded for their efforts. Remove that reward, and you remove theincentive to work. The former
Nonetheless, however you regard it,unrestrained greed is detrimental to society; unrestrained disapproval of greedis detrimental to society. People attempt to find a balance between biologicalimperative and social necessity.
SUMMARY
Although there is a strong biological basisfor human behavior, humans are the most social creatures on earth. Thesocieties and cultures we create have a major effect on our behavior,mollifying and modifying our biological reactions.
Self-preservation extends beyond the personalto the public, involving family, friends, and even strangers. What may help ourpersonal survival may help others, who may help us in turn.
Humans, reproducing sexually, have all thebiological urges that other animals have. However, our complex societies andcultures have altered our reproductive strategies. Social factors, inparticular women's, have become so important that they are a guiding ratherthan an ancillary consideration in mate selection. Strength and fighting skillin men have taken second place to power, money, and status. Although the formermay be necessary to success in the biological world, the latter are necessaryto success in human society. And in the last several thousand years, societyrather than biology has become the driving force of human life.
Equally, human social life has radicallyaltered the need to gather resources to live and reproduce. The need for food,water or shelter is biological -- a lack results in death. However, humansociety has changed how and why resources are gathered. The biologicalnecessity is the same: humans need to eat, drink, sleep, stayout of the rain. But society has developed a way to transport current resourcesinto the future for use in that future -- money. Thus, humans seek money.
Appeals to the human psyche must take notonly biology but society into account. Society is the driving force behind muchof human behavior.
Notes
(1) This note is contained inthe Comments Page -- Comments onGreed in the Modern World
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