The ways greed changes us

Greed can be dangerous, greed can destroy an entire society and has a few times through history, the issue is that most people are naturally greedy in some ways, greed does not always mean money.  

Get it? change! hahaha I’m so funny.

Greed is the desire for something, a few forms of it are; recognition, the desire to receive the reactions and input for your creation or idea can cause issues, the desperation for the likes, comments or other statistics can make you want more, positive attention cant be bad for you…or can it?  I personally know that I might fall victim to that, if I work hard on something I get worried about the quality of it and ask others for their thoughts and when im told something positive about it, it makes me feel better, which could eventually lead into me seeking that feeling again and again. Another form greed can take is power, the desire for power can be addicting, leaving some to crave more and more, I already defined power in the last post, so I will leave it to you to catch up if you haven’t already. Greed can be defined as; which lines up with my definition pretty well so far, its okay to want things, its not okay to be obsessive over having those things.   The topic greed is shown in Divergent multiple times, Erudite wants to take control of the government, believing that the smartest should be in control, the only issue with Erudite doing that is the fact that in the book they are heartless, they don’t care who gets hurt, they just want to keep moving forward stepping on whoever gets in their way. That is the main theme of divergent, back in the real world we struggle with greed as well, we all want to be successful and get somewhere, some can take that passion too far without deserving it, this article shows a bit of that and ties in with last weeks article of the week, global warming shouldnt be our main threat, in reality we are our greatest threat.  People want to be greedy but not have to work for it, which doesn’t work, you cant get something from nothing, someone has to do more work to make up for it.  There isn’t much that can be said about greed, it cant really be cured, its not a disease, its human nature to want things and unless we can change the entire human race….I don’t see it changing any time soon.

The many forms of Power

Power can take many forms and do many things, power can be what you can do, power can be control, and power can keep the lights on and power runs the world.  If power did not exist, there would be no leaders, only followers and a world full of people following each other would be a dull place. All people crave a form of power, in whatever form they seem fit, some think it is control, money or other stuff, but it takes power to do anything in life.

In the book Divergent, which we are reading, all of the factions have their own opinion on power and what it means to be powerful. Erudite for example sees power in intelligence, they believe ignorance is the cause for all problems and that learning and advancing comes before consequences. While Erudite are right in some regards, they are wrong in many others, like: honesty, erudite at the time has moved past their original agenda and now seek to control the community because they believe the smartest are best fit, what they also lack is selflessness, erudite are incredibly selfish in the book and fear that others have more power or resources and point fingers in a desperate attempt to get the upper hand, they also lack bravery, it takes no bravery to sit behind a screen and think of ways to advance technology, it takes some to go out and make a difference with that technology, not every faction is perfect and that is their flaw, they all have their own agendas and are not working for the greater good anymore.

Candor isnt perfect either, seeing everything in black and white isn’t always the best, they seem to be a cold faction where truth and law are followed to the letter, allowing for no freedom, a community will not last under that type of leadership, it would be too strict and the other factions would bring them down.  People are complex and truth and lies will not always solve the problem, you need to be kind in and smart at times to know when the truth is the best choice, you cant use black and white in an often gray world. They see power in honesty.

Abnegation is the faction of the selfless, yet the other factions seem to think that they are not, Erudite thinks they are hoarding supplies, Candor thinks that kindness is deceit so Abnegation is targeted quite a bit for suspicion, but from what we know, they have the second worst living conditions in the city, above factionless, they are not allowed to do anything for themselves, no hobbies, no sports, nothing that is just for you.  Tris has never had a hamburger before being in Dauntless, could you imagine eating bland food everyday for your entire life, Abnegation seems to be the scapegoat for the other factions, most situations can not be solved by kindness, some require you to be smart and know when to be kind and where to no, it requires bravery to stand up for yourself, and it requires honesty to know you are not making much of a difference yourself.

We have not seen Amity yet, so there is nothing to be said, but we have seen Dauntless.  Dauntless see power in Bravery, while they have moved away from their good intentions,   they still believe that cowardice is the cause for problems, that you have to be brave enough to stand up for yourself, that you need to be brave to make a difference.