Good and Greed
Jul. 12th, 2003 03:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdonark"Are you not seeking Good? Why do you move your right hand? You move it to get your Good. Why do you breathe? You breathe to get your Good. Why do the stones lie still and wait? They are waiting for their Good. Why does the fly? It flies for its Good. Everything moves and waits for its Good. So you see that the Good draws everything. The Good which you and I want governs everything we do"--Emma Curtis Hopkins
"Greed is good"...Gordon Gekko, in Stanley Weiser and Oliver Stone's screenplay for "Wall Street"
It's a dilemma. On the one hand, I meet people consumed by their passion for personal fulfillment--their desire to define good to include whatever gratifies their particular physical or metaphoric needs. On the other hand, I meet other people who never dare do anything, lest they betray a kind of ambition they hesitate to show to others.
I read the newspaper about corporate executives who chose seriously fraudulent pathways, for material short term advantage. What did that money buy? A larger house? A more attractive inamorata? That sheer thrill of owning the right to do whatever one damn well pleases, until the indictments hand down? What kind of self-hypnosis allows one to run with the big dogs on the way to the pound?
It's hard to blame folks in some ways. I've had the "rock star" fantasy, though I have less inclination to make "real music" than almost anyone I know. Imagine being someone whose lyrics people hear, read and adulate. Imagine being found desirable on the strength of a melody and a lyric and a look.
Imagine seeing the world, and it even turns out that the world amounts to more than a series of conference rooms filled with lawyers.
But my cursory watching of VH-1 suggests to me that 'behind the music', personal excess falls remarkably short as a life credo. Perhaps one can achieve ecstasy only so many times before it becomes habit, and then drudgery.
I like the image of Gandhi, owning only old shoes, a homespun garment, and glasses. But surely the quest to do good means more than merely rejecting material things. Surely one can have a dream or two, and still be "good".
I think that the mixed emotions are the most complex. One can psych oneself out as being unworthy merely because one has an ambition that one really wants to achieve. On the other hand, I can think of times in my life in which I rationalized as "being good" something or other that merely suited my personal agenda.
I think it's a tough call--do I want it because it is good, or do I pretend it's good, because I want it?
"Greed is good"...Gordon Gekko, in Stanley Weiser and Oliver Stone's screenplay for "Wall Street"
It's a dilemma. On the one hand, I meet people consumed by their passion for personal fulfillment--their desire to define good to include whatever gratifies their particular physical or metaphoric needs. On the other hand, I meet other people who never dare do anything, lest they betray a kind of ambition they hesitate to show to others.
I read the newspaper about corporate executives who chose seriously fraudulent pathways, for material short term advantage. What did that money buy? A larger house? A more attractive inamorata? That sheer thrill of owning the right to do whatever one damn well pleases, until the indictments hand down? What kind of self-hypnosis allows one to run with the big dogs on the way to the pound?
It's hard to blame folks in some ways. I've had the "rock star" fantasy, though I have less inclination to make "real music" than almost anyone I know. Imagine being someone whose lyrics people hear, read and adulate. Imagine being found desirable on the strength of a melody and a lyric and a look.
Imagine seeing the world, and it even turns out that the world amounts to more than a series of conference rooms filled with lawyers.
But my cursory watching of VH-1 suggests to me that 'behind the music', personal excess falls remarkably short as a life credo. Perhaps one can achieve ecstasy only so many times before it becomes habit, and then drudgery.
I like the image of Gandhi, owning only old shoes, a homespun garment, and glasses. But surely the quest to do good means more than merely rejecting material things. Surely one can have a dream or two, and still be "good".
I think that the mixed emotions are the most complex. One can psych oneself out as being unworthy merely because one has an ambition that one really wants to achieve. On the other hand, I can think of times in my life in which I rationalized as "being good" something or other that merely suited my personal agenda.
I think it's a tough call--do I want it because it is good, or do I pretend it's good, because I want it?
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doing good
Date: 2003-07-12 04:16 am (UTC)As a professing Christian the Bible tells me in Titus (NT) "This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men" Titus 3:8. I tell myself I am doing good by being faithful to what I am called to do each day. I go to work each day which is good. It would be bad if I refused to work. Is not working good? I suppose the money earned by work can do good? I am not good at sharing my money with others since I am not rich. The point of this ramble is what does it mean to do good? I am a good father and husband. I try to be a good neighbor and worker. In the end I am not good and have to hope in the grace of God.
I do not think I am a greedy person even though I do talk about money all the time. I am not miserable because we do not have a ton of money. I know deep down inside money does not bring happiness. Only having a personal relationship with God brings happiness if such a state of being exist. Well I will close-thanks for the kind words you wrote to me the other day-Jonny
"Now behold, one came and said to Him, "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?" So He said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments." Matt.19:16,17
guilt as a virtue - food for thought
Date: 2003-07-12 11:36 am (UTC)"This is strange - in that Jesus himself, if we are to credit The Gospel of John, was most undoubtedly a mystic, in the strict sense of one who has realized union with God. But in becoming the religion about Jesus instead of the religion of Jesus, Christianity separated itself from the basic insight of its master, and regarded him as a bizarre deus ex machina in the plot of history. In asking its followers to go by his life and example, it denied them access to the state of consciousness from which that life proceeded by insisting that Jesus alone was God incarnate, and that God cannot be in us in the same way it was in him. But a man so uniquely privileged cannot serve as an example for others. Christianity thus became an impossible religion which institutionalized guilt in failing to be Christlike as a virtue."
Re: guilt as a virtue - food for thought
Date: 2003-07-12 05:19 pm (UTC)Re: guilt as a virtue - food for thought
Date: 2003-07-12 06:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-20 03:41 pm (UTC)"One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others."
I have reached the point in my personal journey where I agree with that philsophy. I might say that my definition of joy is doing for others.
I recently read a book by Alan Watts, consisting of 8 lectures on Eastern Philosophy. It was very good. But I think the quote here betrays a misunderstanding of Christ.
The Christian position is that Christ was fully God, and yet fully human. In his lifetime on earth, he says that he did nothing by his own power and volition. He did the will of his Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ promised that same Holy Spirit to every believer saying, "he shall be with you, and he shall be in you".
I would define "good" as doing the will of God. And I know that the essence of the Christian life is denial of selfishness, and of self-centredness. This is not false modesty, this is not pious denigration of self. It is accepting my gifts to be the gifts of a generous God. It is refusing to compare myself to anyone else. It is using my gifts to glorify God by serving others.