Greed
“If this don't make you mad, nothing will.” This was the introduction to a forwarded email a friend sent me the other day. The forward originally came from a group that is taking a militaristic stance against greed. Imbedded in the email was a link to a video detailing the egregious ways a billionaire named Henry Kravis makes his money.
It appears that Henry makes his money in legal – yet, extremely unethical – ways. So, this group produced a video to help fire up the masses as they declare war on the greed that earned Henry Kravis billions of dollars.
What is the use in fighting such a war?
If your goal is to create frustration and anger toward people most of us will never get to know, there is plenty of reason to fight greed. If you want to highlight the depravity of certain people who appear to be untouchable, take your talent and energy and you can make that happen, too. If you want to create further division in our society, go ahead: compare the sickening wealth of Henry Kravis against the ordinary wages of ‘good people’ like teachers and nurses.
I don’t see the point, though.
My hope and prayer would be that a person such as Henry might change the way he lives. Oh, how this world could be changed if we were able to reach the outrageously wealthy with the needs of the rest of the world! Reaching out with love to a man such as this could transform his heart and his life in a way that could help him live in a generous way.
This hope might seem naive, unlikely, and completely unrealistic. The likelihood of a change in lifestyle is about... well, almost none. But, haranguing this billionaire will amount to zilch for sure. Like it or not, we all live in ways that are no good for the well-being of others. We all need to change our ways. But, being attacked doesn’t do a darned bit of good in getting us to make the needed changes. More often than not, for me at least, honest and kind words of rebuke are the change initiators.
posted by Lorin at
10:02 AM
3 Comments:
I think there was a lot of good and thoughtful information on the WarOnGreed.org website. And contrasting Kravis' wealth with the well-being of nurses and teachers seems like a perfectly reasonable and rational way to call into question the issues of disparity in the livelihoods of various occupational choices.
There have been good, righteous wars fought in the past -- the war on poverty, the war on illiteracy. The war on greed seems like a just and right endeavor.
I'd be interested, though in pursuing your suggestion further with regard to our other, less distinct, and somewhat misguided "war on terror." We have used a conceptual construct -- the idea of a war waged against an idea (poverty, illiteracy, greed) to justify an actual shooting war on a group of people who we identify as terrorists.
I happen to think that your suggestion for reaching out to Kravis in love a beautiful way to approach individuals. Could we have done the same thing with Saddam Hussein?
December 29, 2007 2:22 PM
Unless someone has shot Mr. Kravis to combat the "War on Greed," I do not see the point of muddying the waters with a reference to the war on terror.
No one is arguing the need to combat greed in this world - the way that we go about it is what is truely up for debate.
How dare anyone fight greed with hate! God desires for us to be in relationship with God and one another. Creating a bully movement to force people to accept your values does nothing to promote relationship - much less inspire generosity in one another.
January 14, 2008 1:28 PM
The WarOnGreed.org website doesn't appear to be a hate site. I thought it was a clever and humorous way to draw attention to the issue of greed. Suggesting in a thoughtful way that someone is wrong is not hatred. Disagreement is not hatred.
January 14, 2008 2:25 PM
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