Will greed and self-interest always overpower compassion and cooperation?

If the current state of the world is anything to go by, the answer to the title question appears to be a resounding YES.  I sure wish I felt otherwise.

This post is my response to the third and final 2022 challenge posed to me in early January by fellow blogger John Persico at Aging Capriciously.  John’s #3 challenge question to me: How can we eliminate greed in the world?  Is it even possible?  Why or why not?

If I’d been asked to reply to this question earlier than, say, 6 years ago, I might still have pulled out my idealistic voice – which is now dead and buried – and talked about how it is possible if we all pull together.  I might have used my optimistic side – which isn’t quite dead – and spoken about how tolerance and understanding can win out, starting by reminding us all of what nearly the entire world professes to believe within their own cultural and religious bubbles:  Do unto others what you would have others do unto you.  But I’m sad to say that too many events in the world in the past 6 years have made it abundantly clear that writing such positive words don’t change the reality:  Greed and self-interest have overtaken any semblance of compassion in altogether too many instances.  It is self-interest over any concern for the common good.

Greed is defined in many sources as the intense and selfish desire for some thing, especially wealth, power, and food.  In particular, it’s the desire for more than one actually needs.  A more forceful definition, which makes it clearer that greed is not a good thing, describes greed as ruthless self-seeking and an arrogant assumption that other people and things exist for one’s own benefit.

There are so many recent examples on the world stage that it’s hard to know where to start:

• Putin’s greed in thinking that because he wants Ukraine (and, perish the thought, other sovereign nations he may have in mind) to be part of his empire, he can invade it, killing 10s of thousands, displacing millions, destroying entire cities and infrastructure, historical treasures, and a major source of the world’s grain supplies. Putin’s greed and Putin’s greed alone has done this.
• Rising inequality in the world, especially in the rich Western countries, where we should be working on reducing inequality, not increasing it. From Forbes.com in 2020 (and it’s become even more extreme since): According to the latest Fed data, the top 1% of Americans have a combined net worth of $34.2 trillion (or 4% of all household wealth in the U.S.), while the bottom 50% of the population holds just $2.1 trillion combined (or 1.9% of all wealth).  Although the U.S. leads the Western-world pack by a large margin in measures of inequality, it has been increasing in most countries.  And there is one reason only: public policies that protect the rich and industrialists at the expense of worker protection (e.g., unions).  And that’s a direct result of greed and power of decision makers at the top.  Those policies attract/ensure large donations and keep the same politicians elected.  The old saying “Power corrupts” is, sadly, too often the case.  All because of greed for money and/or power over the good of citizens and country.  [From Visual Capitalist, and it’s become more extreme since this 2013 data.]
• The increase in populism in many of our Western countries. For me this is an example of greed, the greed of “my way or the highway”, or either play by the rules of my “tribe” or expect violence/racism/discrimination/marginalization.  The resulting ethnic and social issues are all well known, so I won’t itemize them and create unnecessary controversy, but this increase in people feeling that they can publicly challenge others to behave according to someone else’s” norms” when these others are doing absolutely nothing that’s hurting you is greedy, selfish, and cruel.  It’s not the world I want to live in.
• I could go on, but I’m sure you can fill in the remaining virtual blanks with examples of your own.

Gandhi was once quoted as saying, “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not everyone’s greed.”  He was referring to the fact that Earth cannot sustain a “western” lifestyle for all of humanity.  That is a greed that all of us who are so privileged must work on.  It is true for most of us who live in the western world – we could do with less, but we could start by looking at the extraordinary greed of owning multiple mansions, superyachts (!), and multiple private airplanes.  The fact that such obscene excesses exist is not only a prime example of greed but also something that would not have had a spotlight shone on it if Putin hadn’t started his criminal assault on Ukraine.

I would desperately like to have a positive resolution to this challenge, something to counter the response that, no, it is not possible to eliminate greed in the world … because human beings are just too damn susceptible to situations in which they can benefit from greedy actions.  Too self-serving.  I’m not sure I can have a positive resolution, but I’ll give it a try.

Research into human behaviour has suggested that we are wired with both a greedy proclivity and an empathetic proclivity.  It appears that in hunter-gatherer societies and other sparsely settled societies, people have come to understand that it is to their advantage to work together – to cooperate and collaborate – in order to make their lives work better.  So it is possible; we do have it within us.  If we want to live in a world where all people are treated with respect and all reciprocate accordingly, that is the path we need to follow.  From what we have experienced recently, this is a very, very tough challenge.  We can only live in hope and do our part to make the positive changes.  Take advantage of opportunities to walk the talk.

Yesterday, July 27, was Multiculturalism Day in Canada, established to celebrate the many diverse cultures within our communities across the country.  In 1971, the Canadian Parliament passed the Multiculturalism Act, which strove to promote diversity and inclusion, acknowledging the multitude of cultures that make up the fabric of our country, increasingly so as immigration increases and enriches us further.  For me the policy of multiculturalism is one of the most significant definers of our country, one of which I am extremely proud.  And it is one that I think exemplifies the kind of world I’m talking about. Pierre Elliott Trudeau was Prime Minister at the time, and in describing the intent of the policy of multiculturalism, he spoke of the very attributes we must embrace in order to eliminate or at least overpower greed: compassion, love, and understanding.

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Previous 2022 challenge responses:

#1: Knowledge, wisdom, truth, and trust

#2: If I could turn back time – for peace, for love, … for dinosaurs