Daily Mood Quotes
Day 182 – November 2, 2011
The kind of society which we still have is maybe, in some cases, getting worse. Competition is becoming a virtue. Intense competition drives people to go more and more into self-interest. Even to see other folks as competition.
~Major Owens
Self-interest to a point is a requirement for living. You need to take care of the needs; food, water, Maslow's hierarchy of needs. But in oh so many cases, somewhere between needs and wants, things get very fuzzy, very fast. When you have to make a decision about the basic things in life, including sustaining your life then few can argue about its necessity, only the way you go about doing it. However, when someone puts their wants ahead of common decency, morality, their humanity, then no matter how wealthy they are, or how much is gained, they certainly become less of a human. No perfume can cover the stink of it. No platitudes offered by fair weather friends, can cover the din of the internal voices calling them out. How many of the “wealthy 1%” go to psychiatrists or therapy regularly? How many run themselves ragged trying to make up for it, by chasing charity after charity, not really doing anything positive - just throwing cash at it to absolve themselves?
John Steinbeck said, “It has always seemed strange to me...the things we admire in men, kindness, and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.” Does anyone other than me find this painful and “inconvenient” truth disturbing? I guess it really depends on how you define success. If one measures success by the things they have; know that no matter how many things they possess, they will always want more. This is exactly what hell is; forever wanting. And, all of it, all the “things” people place value in, can disappear in a flash. I know this from experience as a victim of identity theft. We lost everything we ever worked for, and I mean the product of a thousand 18-20 hour days and sleepless nights, house and all.
So, what's the other success? Try this one on for size: “Success as a human being; to know at the end of the day, you have done your best to do what is right. And at the end of your life, you have left the world a better place than you found it.” On the surface it looks easy, but it is far more challenging than amassing all the riches of Midas. Let's talk a little bit about King Midas; Yes. I know it's a fable, but all good and enduring fables are based in truth. He got his wish to be wealthy beyond all measure; everything he touched was gold. That meant he could never touch anything that meant something to his heart, because it would turn to gold. This included someone he loved and oh by the way, I don't image the gold toilet paper was any fun either...annnnd how exactly did he scratch an itch?
The thing is, the things that truly matter you can't amass, except in memory. The things that truly matter to humans are not the fortunes stacked away in vaults, digital or real, but in the richness of looking beyond oneself and toward making the world we live in a better place for the next generation. That will endure. In the movie It's A Wonderful Life with James Stewart (George Bailey), Clarence (played by Henry Travers) said, “Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends.” Fair weather friends excluded, because they too disappear when the “things” disappear.
Self-interest is the common disease of humanity and its the one that poses one of the greatest long-term threats to our growing population. Imagine seven billion souls bumping around, thinking only of themselves. That's a horror story that even Steven King dare not write, or maybe he will. Okay I'm off the soap box now. See you tomorrow.
What will be your “interest” today.
Tune in tomorrow to read the daily mood quote
Thank you for reading.
