Thursday 8th December

Okay, so maybe the one you have been waiting for; Anna and her sister Anna have arrived in Tennesse (did Bertolt Brecht simply stick a pin into a map of America, or was there some secret logic at work) and discover Greed, which is different from pure Gluttony and from Lust too.  Greed is the disease that is most prevalent in our own money-driven society, where the answer to all of life’s ills is to get rich.  And once rich, rich is simply not good enough, we could always do with a bit more and then some. I am sure that most of us have no problem with a bit of wealth, and the desire to have a bit more than one has got.  Nothing nicer than to be able to afford that little cocktail dress, or those shoes or that handbag, even though you would once have been horrified at the prices.  The trouble with Greed is that once it gets its’ twisty little fingers entwined into your soul there is no stopping it.  How many houses do you really need, how many cars in the garage, how many CDs on the shelf, how many pairs of shoes in your wardrobe?  It is all relative.  I read the results of a survey on the perception of wealth, and almost everyone thought that they would be happy earning between two and three times their current income; that is about as far as we can really imagine, those things that are always elusively out of our reach.  When buying your house you realize just how much more another hundred thousand would get you, and then when you finally get that dream house, you see your neighbours with an extra bedroom or three and a conservatory and that old devil called Greed starts worming its’ way into your consciousness.  And the trouble is that our whole society is based on Greed, from the investment bankers down to the people in the council flats, we are all taught that what you can grab and hold onto is good for you.  Little surprise then that the rioters were mostly after the looting.

But surely enough is enough, does one really need four holidays a year – and holidays from what, those who can best afford them rarely need them as much as those who cannot.  I have more clothes at this point in my life, more than I can possibly wear, and yet when I am walking down Oxford or Bond Street I am often tempted, and for what, some sort of instant gratification, or is something deeper going on her, this desire to keep acquiring more and more stuff.  Every advertisement is based on human greed, promising happiness if only we buy that face cream or wear this perfume or use this furniture polish, when actually we are perfectly happy without any of them.  Sometimes I think I was never happier than those years between Adrian and Edward, on my own, not  a lot of money, still having to save for things, and yet I still read all the books I wanted to whereas now I buy more than I can read and end up taking them unread to my local Oxfam.   My cleaning lady regular gets foisted on her clothes I let go to make room in my wardrobe for new stuff, and they are perfectly good really, sometimes barely worn at all, so what is driving me – is it boredom or greed, to just have one more outfit, one more book, one more CD.

At least I can afford it, so maybe little harm is done.  The ones we should feel sorry for are those whose Greed will not let them stop even though they cannot afford it and slip deeper into debt.  Or those Greedy businessmen and wheeler-dealers who just have to win another contract or make another deal, buy a few more shares, and without a thought as to the consequences as long as they accumulate more and more wealth.  And Greed will be the death of us, the death of our Planet too if we aren’t careful.  So definitely the deadliest sin of them all I would say.