Featured Illustration: To Ni, ‘The Price of Greed’
Let me tell you a story
Of strong voracity and straight-up hypocrisy
Let me tell you a story
Where it’s people with their things versus people with nothing
Let me tell you a story
Of a society filled with greed that doesn’t feed those in grave need
Let me tell you a story of a world, this world, that we live in right now
The Oxford dictionary defines ‘greed’ as “the intense selfish desire for something”, something that we apparently need
Socrates once said, “He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have”
Yet, with these deafening words in mind why do we allow ourselves to live in lavish oblivion forgetting our decency for mankind
In this Western society
We desire the drinks, the drugs, the dollars
We fathom for the Ferraris, the fame, a fortune to keep us sustained
Yet, we remain ungrateful constantly craving for more
Like a well that never becomes full
Like a heart yearning for more blood
Or an ocean wishing to further flood the souls of people with greed
Now let’s step back and spin this globe
Observe the girl crying over the loss of her mother
Or listen to the boy shouting for his father
Turn your head down your very street and look at the family begging on their knees
Listen to the screams of bombs falling over towns making them tombs
Before you blast the sound of your music worshipping money and bodies for what use?
For what use do we live these fake lives
Snapping every second
Instagramming every instant
Showing the world every item we attain because we are so vain
While people live in a daily calamity screaming for humanity
We shut our eyes and ears without any care
Now don’t listen to my words and throw away your possessions
For that will do nothing and give off no great message
Rather be grateful for all that you have because at any moment that can be passed
Don’t complain about the food when you have a fridge full
Don’t cry for new clothes when you got a closet complete
And don’t nag for new things when you practically got it all
Because like Gandhi said, “There is a sufficiency in the world for man’s needs but not man’s greed.”
