Part Four: War, Avarice, and Greed
Avarice (from Latin avarus ; "to crave") is the overwhelming desire to be greedy. Greed (from Old English grædig , or "voracious," which means "always hungry for more.") is avarice succeeding. Are retail-sluts destroying the planet? Is keeping up with the Kardashians a mortal sin against the secular religion of social justice? Is conspicuous consumption the cause of capitalism, its effect, or some synergy between the two? How about our ‘ propensity for emulation’ ? Is that an irreversible feature of human nature? If your answer is ‘yes’ to these questions, then it’s likely you can see the thread that ultimately connects avarice and greed to war. Often lumped together in vitriol, there’s an important distinction between avarice and greed. Avarice is a gateway vice. Lying, thieving, and murder are just a temptation. Avarice is an underlying predicate for The Lord of the Rings predicates. Tolkien’s Gollum (Smeagol) acquires the