Greed moved to July 12 group Second Cut (more may be in the offing) Is greed not gluttony for possessions instead of food? If so, then deadly sins have to be seen for their objects as well as their sources and effects.

 

Surely this is an acutely American sin. relate advertising to greed.
Where is the drive behind the lure of possessions? Why does retail therapy work, even for a time?
Where is it anti-social? How does greed affect our natural environment?
What does it do to the emotions and the soul? (Include relationships)

How is greed related to hoarding?

Is there such a thing as societal greed? Is the American dream about anything other than more possessions than one's parents?

How does generosity start to counter greed? If greed emerges from a consideration of personal deficit, where does generosity emerge?

 

Capps puts greed with the play stage of say a four year old. It is connected with the building of a sense of initiative and a sense of purpose , and perhaps dedication. He links it to being ruthless. I must admit that I do not have a good handle on this linkage, so the following are guesses/conjectures.Somehow greed seeks to deal with guilt. Guilt is the sense of doing something wrong by transgressing a boundary, of doing something wrong, as opposed to shame, a more general sense of not measuring up, of being wrong oneself, than in being in the wrong. Greed tries to abolish limits by wanting it all, even when one has more than one needs. it becomes a compulsion for more but it limited to the symbolic realm of things possessed than taken in, gluttony, or lust, person as a thing. greed is the flip side of initiative in that the child's mind and body can work toward objectives, toward a purpose, a hsared one. Now a child can play together with others. guilt may impede those relationships. Gree insists that one should be the boss, the possessor of things acquired by this new-found initiative.  It does withdraw energy from relationships. We rarely think of misers as good with people. things try to replace people. Without an overarching deep meaning structure, without a project worthy of vocation, we substitute acquisition of things. (think of the rules of acquisition of Quark in Deep Space Nine). It hopes that one will be admired for one's possessions.