Greed: A Historical Perspective

What causes greed? In the long course of human history, the following factors

 could cause greed: excessive desire for power; especially political power, for

 possessions, for wealth, and for precious things. Greedy people always want more

 than they need or deserve, and they are likely to pursue their targets by all means.

 

In China, Empress Dowager Cixi was a good example. Her political ambitions

 expanded after the death of her son, Emperor Tongzhi, in 1875. As a matter of fact,

 from 1861 till her death in 1908, Empress Dowager Cixi controlled the state power.

 Emperor Tongzhi was six years old when he was appointed to be the successor of his

 father, the late Emperor Xianfeng. Emperor Tongzhi was too young to handle

 national affairs; therefore, Empress Dowager Cixi sat behind a screen to help the

 young emperor to make important decisions, and wielded the actual power of the

 country. Her greed made her to choose a five-year-old nephew to succeed Emperor

 Tongzhi as the country’s new emperor; therefore, she could keep controlling the state

 power. She only cared about herself, and totally disregarded the country’s long-term

 development. She nearly caused China to fall into subjugation.

 

According to the Bible “2 Samuel 11”, David, the King of Israel, ignored that he

 already owned everything; still, he desired to own Bathsheba, the beautiful wife of

 David’s soldier, Uriah. Therefore, he designed the murder of Uriah, and then he took

 Bathsheba as his fifth wife. King David’s strong lust of other’s belongings led to his

 greed.

 

When Japan invaded China in 1937, the Japanese Army claimed that in three

 months they would beat up China and would force the Chinese government to

 compromise. In 1895, Japan already seized Taiwan as a trophy from the “Treaty of

 Shimonoseki” and occupied the huge land of northeast China in 1931. Still, the

 Japanese government was not satisfied with these. In 1937, the Japanese army

 attacked Nanjing, China’s capital at that time, and brutally massacred civilians.

 Japan’s invasion was like a python that dreamed to swallow a gigantic elephant.

 Instead of conquering China in three months, Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945.

 The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall is not only to commemorate the three hundred

 thousand victims but also to remind people of the world to avoid similar tragedies that

 are caused by nationalistic greed.

 

To make money, dishonest companies produce bad foods such as toxic

 cooking oil and sell it to consumers. This is a real incident happening right now in

 Taiwan. Several famous cooking oil manufacturers were revealed to have added a

 forbidden food coloring, copper chlorophyll, in their “100% pure olive oil” products. Some

 other products have been found illegally added cottonseed oil, which is very cheap

 but contained harmful the substance “gossypol”. Some products added food flavor

 without using the real material; however, the label claimed that the products are 100%

 pure olive oil. The cost of these materials is very cheap, but the profits they make by

 selling these fake, toxic products are alarming, not to mention, the harm caused by

 their products to the consumers’ health.

 

In the early 19^th century, Britain completed the Industrial Revolution and was the

 most powerful capitalist country in the world. To expand the market and to secure

 more sources of industrial materials, British merchants smuggled opium to China.

 The British merchants made huge profits, but the Chinese people lost their health and

 money. The Chinese government tried to ban opium and eventually destroyed more

 than one million kilograms of opium. As a consequence, Britain’s government

 launched the Opium War against China. China was defeated and was forced to sign

 unequal treaties with Britain. For China, the Opium War is a mark of shame, and for

 Britain, the Opium War is a label of greed.

 

November 14, 2013, Barry Petersen, a CBS News Correspondent, reported that

 “U.S. crushes six tons of confiscated ivory to send message to poachers.” According

 to the report, “Africa’s elephants are being slaughtered at a record pace by poachers

 who hope to get rich by selling their ivory tusks.” The ivory buyers mainly are

 wealthy Chinese people and Petersen said that they “see ivory as a status symbol”. Every

 year, the poachers kill approximately fifty thousands African elephants because of the

 huge profits of selling the ivory. In Beijing, the cost for a pound of ivory is more than

 one thousand dollars.

 

In people’s daily lives, greed is apparent every day. At the all-you-can-eat

 restaurants, people always get more foods than they can eat. Dishonest people lie

 about their income to take advantage of government benefits. Dishonest banks try to

 cheat the customers by sneaking into their accounts and signing programs for them

 without the customers’ approval.

 

Greed is a disease. Greed is a pathological way of life. It is very difficult to fill

 the desire of valley. History is like a mirror. If humans learn some lessons of greed

 from the history of past examples, they many be able to have a better attitude towards

 their life and the world around.