I have discovered through personal experience that one very effective way to combat greed is to view possessions, particularly money, as nothing more than tools. Viewing possessions in this way, as having purpose and not as ends in themselves, one remains detached yet necessarily responsible. Money is a tool.
The same goes with care of the body. In our culture today we are witnessing the cult of the body, the hyperbolic emphasis on self-care, the worship of the flesh and its pleasures, which invariably ends in profound unhappiness because we are quite literally not wired to find joy in making ourselves gods. How is this to be balanced with the responsibility we have to care for ourselves? The most effective way to combat vanity is to view one’s body as being for others. I keep myself physically fit so I can be of use to my elderly neighbors. When they need assistance with lawn care I have an able body to put into action. If I didn’t care for myself I wouldn’t be able to help them. If I stayed fit purely for vanities sake I wouldn’t even notice their need.
We are entering into a remarkable period which has science at profound variance with marketing and consumerism. In the bookstore today I saw advertising signs saying It Really Is All About You! Yet the magazine stand had current issues of Scientific American Mind magazine and Psychology Today which had articles about how the way out of depression is to give yourself away in relationships and how altruism is healthy for the brain.
Altruism can have a profound effect on the social networks in which you move. Of course so can negative contagions such as drug use or crime. However social theorists can now show that human networks over time expel and marginalize individuals bringing such contagion to the network in an attempt to limit the harm it does to the whole. Altruistic individuals, on the other hand, tend to increase and deepen their relationships. The network, recognizing value in these persons, move them deeper into the middle where they exert even greater influence on the whole. This redounds in enormous benefits for the person, increasing their health, happiness and longevity.
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on Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 12:01 pm and is filed under Social Commentary.
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Greed, Vanity and Altruism
I have discovered through personal experience that one very effective way to combat greed is to view possessions, particularly money, as nothing more than tools. Viewing possessions in this way, as having purpose and not as ends in themselves, one remains detached yet necessarily responsible. Money is a tool.
The same goes with care of the body. In our culture today we are witnessing the cult of the body, the hyperbolic emphasis on self-care, the worship of the flesh and its pleasures, which invariably ends in profound unhappiness because we are quite literally not wired to find joy in making ourselves gods. How is this to be balanced with the responsibility we have to care for ourselves? The most effective way to combat vanity is to view one’s body as being for others. I keep myself physically fit so I can be of use to my elderly neighbors. When they need assistance with lawn care I have an able body to put into action. If I didn’t care for myself I wouldn’t be able to help them. If I stayed fit purely for vanities sake I wouldn’t even notice their need.
We are entering into a remarkable period which has science at profound variance with marketing and consumerism. In the bookstore today I saw advertising signs saying It Really Is All About You! Yet the magazine stand had current issues of Scientific American Mind magazine and Psychology Today which had articles about how the way out of depression is to give yourself away in relationships and how altruism is healthy for the brain.
Altruism can have a profound effect on the social networks in which you move. Of course so can negative contagions such as drug use or crime. However social theorists can now show that human networks over time expel and marginalize individuals bringing such contagion to the network in an attempt to limit the harm it does to the whole. Altruistic individuals, on the other hand, tend to increase and deepen their relationships. The network, recognizing value in these persons, move them deeper into the middle where they exert even greater influence on the whole. This redounds in enormous benefits for the person, increasing their health, happiness and longevity.
This entry was posted on Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 12:01 pm and is filed under Social Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.