Greed is the Root of All Evil... ...or Is It ? by Eric Szuter I disagree with just about everything that Franklin Delano Roosevelt did, but I do agree for the most part with at least one thing he said — "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." This is a truly profound statement. For when all is said and done, there are only two sources of human motivation, in my humble opinion — fear and a desire for fun. That is, my view is that every time you or I choose a course of action we have done so because of fear or in the hope of experiencing some fun. I challenge you to examine your actions and see if at the bottom of each and every choice you make is either fear or the desire for fun. In observing nature, we see animals sometimes laden with fear; our animal friends are always looking over their shoulder and seem to suffer from a constant state of jitters. Since the human being is certainly an animal, it should be expected that fear would quite naturally be a major motivating factor for humans as well. However, the highly developed brain of Homo sapiens seems to have included a high sense of fun. True, other higher mammals seem to play at times and to have fun. But the human mind with its creative intelligence has taken the animal's primitive concept of fun to a higher plane. We can invent new ways of having fun. We can invent technologies that take the drudgery out of life and give us more time to have fun. In fact, it seems that one of the greatest ways to have fun, if not the greatest, is to accomplish something — we like to show off how intelligent we are; it's fun. Nevertheless, it is easy to get bogged down with fear. Fear can consume, fear can warp, fear can ruin. But sometimes it is downright important to fear: fear does have a protective aspect. Fear is the reason that we don't indiscriminately run out into traffic; fear is the reason we don't play with loaded guns. The trick is to be able to recognize when fear is adaptive and when it is maladaptive — whether it promotes or hampers the flourishing of an individual. Fortunately, over time our ancestors have categorized certain behaviors as maladaptive — they have been labeled as vices or sins. This cultural flagging has alerted us to the existence of such behaviors and to be wary of them as well. Being aware of a pathology and understanding the essence of one are two different things, the second being much more valuable than the first. Let's consider the "sin" of envy. What is envy? Well, if you really think about it, you will probably come to the same conclusion that I have. Envy is simply a negative emotion based on a fear that you are going to lose face because some other, usually a peer, is getting ahead materially and you are not. And then let's consider for a moment the "sin" of jealousy. Is it not simply a negative emotion based on a fear that someone, again usually a peer, is planning to take something of yours away from you? Let's develop this thought a bit further. As stated above, fear can be rational, or it can be quite irrational. Fear can also be weak, or it can be strong. When we are experiencing a strong, irrational fear, that's the time we are most likely to create an "evil." If the fear goes beyond even that point and is supremely irrational, it can become a psychological pathology that includes a severely maladaptive behavioral syndrome. Based on this line of thinking, we can say that it is the strong, irrational fear that is maladaptive; it causes us to do something in the short run that we regret in the long term. And supremely strong irrational fear can result in one of many psychological pathologies. For example, if in the case of jealousy, which is based on an irrational fear, a psychological pathology called parsimony (chintziness) can develop. In such a case an individual will become obsessive in protecting that which he fears is soon to be taken away from him. If it is money, as it is in many cases, he becomes miserly and is chintzy with his money — clearly a maladaptive syndrome. In the case of envy, also based on an irrational fear, a psychological pathology called avarice (greed) can develop. In this case, an individual will become obsessive in acquiring and displaying wealth in order to alleviate the fear of losing face among his peers. He becomes an ostentatious money-grubber and becomes greedy to the point, in many cases, that he disregards the moral means of acquiring wealth, which further exacerbates his maladaptive condition. I believe that with practice it is relatively easy to recognize when fear is "good" or "evil." If the fear is rational, it tends to produce a good; if the fear is irrational it tends to produce an evil — we must learn to differentiate rational fear from irrational fear and learn to overcome the irrational ones. This is easier said than done, but it is possible to make progress keeping this key in mind. So we can see that fear is indeed at the root of all evil. But what is evil? What exactly do we mean by evil? The simple answer is already given implicitly in the above argument That which is maladaptive is evil — that which hampers the flourishing of the individual is evil. Consequently, based on this line of thinking, I would then have to say that irrational fear is at the root of all evil, and that FDR's statement could be clarified a bit as, "We have nothing to fear, but irrational fear." It is less poetic, but more to the point. Eric Szuter is a masterate candidate in human ethology (behavioral biology) and is Science Editor for the Truth Seeker. He is the author of The Return of Common Sense and Plain Talk and is the Editor of The Book the State Doesn't Want You to Read. Table of Contents | 1995 Issues | Subscribe Truth Seeker | Feedback | Freethought.com Webmaster Credit card Orders call: 800-321-9054 or fax: (619)676-0433 Or send check or money order to: Truth Seeker / 16935 W. Bernardo Drive, Suite 103 / San Diego, CA 92127 $20.00 annual U.S. subscription ($35.00 international). Individual issues—$10.00 + $2.50 postage and handling Or be a committed freethinker and send $35.00 for a two year subscription. Truth Seeker is published by Truth Seeker Co., Inc. (ISSN 0041-3712) © 1996