Is Greed Good?

I notice how on this day in 1967 Abbie Hoffman together with other hippie/yippie activists managed to disrupt trading at the New York Stock Exchange through the simple expedient of standing in the viewing gallery and throwing dollar bills on to the trading floor. Pandemonium ensued as traders abandoned their activities to scramble after the bills…

Sets me to thinking about various things.

I have no brief against business. It appears to be a natural consequence of our human evolution. (So much possible packed into so few words, hey? So many directions to which that phrase could lead. Ain’t language a wonderful trickster?)

But, as an explanation of this part of our human condition I’m not so convinced the constellation of economic theories called capitalism are the only or even the best ways of describing the great mess of it.

I find myself thinking of that line from Oliver Stone’s film Wall Street.

In fact as I understand it market cognoscenti observe Wall Street is driven by two emotions. Greed, you bet. And, also fear.

Which I find utterly fascinating as they comprise two of the three demons of classic Buddhist psychological thinking: the constellation of grasping, the constellation of aversion and the constellation of what is usually called ignorance, but which I understand to be certainties…

So, from one perspective, at least, the market and pretty much the whole of our modern Capitalist system is based upon demonic forces…

And, of course, everything is more complicated than that.

The observation is that we are each of us, you and me, everyone without exception are woven out of these demons.

So, this is all as natural as breathing…

And, also, there is the possibility inherent in these demons of transformation, of our better angels.

Greed becomes generosity.

Fear becomes clarity.

And certainties become endless curiosity.

And, this is a hard part: the demons never actually go away. There is a rhythm…

Now greed, now generosity, now greed, now generosity. Now fear, now clarity, now fear, now generosity. Now certainty, now curiosity, now certainty, now curiosity.

But not so even. One batch tends to be stronger, the other weaker.

Following a serious spiritual discipline we can open the heart to those better angels as leading, so our demons follow. Here we can walk a way that is more open, more generous, clearer and filled with wonder.

Although the other part, the demon part, will also always be there as a back ground, always a part of the deal, too…

And that’s important. Because, in a sense greed is good. As is fear. As are those certainties.

They have a place.

Greed does drive our economy, does open doors for new ideas and ways of engaging. Fear protects. And certainty gives us a place to stand.

But they’re good only when they take their proper place in the great scheme of things, which is the second place.

Otherwise we tumble into the hell realms.

And while it has its charms, frankly it only looks pretty at the beginning. Cute demons with painted on mustaches…

But a closer look reveals what can lie beneath the nice…