Profit – A Greater and More Destructive Addiction than Heroin

[Demeter]

OpEdNews

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/life_a_merlin_080117_profit__96_a_greater_a.htm





...modern business is displaying all of the symptoms of addiction. If you accept that addiction is a human condition and business is run by humans, I believe profit is an addictive side effect of money. After all, the poppy is a beautiful flower but has less attractive derivatives in opium and heroin. Grain and grape are harmless foods until distilled.

The symptoms of addiction I allude to include:

a) Irrational behaviour - A total focus on profit, to the exclusion of all else

b) Obsessive behaviour - Justifying all actions without regard for human dignity.

c) Attainment of the “profit high” at all costs, irrespective of the impact upon others (Staff, Suppliers, the Environment)

d) Denial -That a) b) and c) above, are not the case

In the pursuit of profit a couple of hundred years ago Britain became “Great” on the back of the slave trade. Is it the tantalising myth of “something for nothing” that profit proffers which produces scant regard for the human misery its attainment often causes? And why is it that often it induces us to fall seriously short of the higher ideals we try to operate and pursue in most other areas of our lives?

We may possibly find justification for our actions because we are hunter/gatherers and need to fulfil this basic human drive. I have no problem with this and the excitement it brings. I enjoyed that excitement for many years and it does seem to fill a requirement within us to experience achievement...However, the excitement that came from hunting for food was tempered by the fact that if we took too much it did not benefit us proportionately, because it rotted back into the ground when not eaten. We can hoard profit and this subtle difference is something we have not devoted any time to in better understanding how we operate as a species with this aspect of our activity.

Perhaps the challenge is to understand better our reactions to profit and try to evolve to a point where we are its master and not the opposite, which has been the case throughout history. To this end, in subtly changing our belief in the emphasis of financial disciplines by introducing other equally important rewards, might we achieve a more diversely satisfying method of exciting and stimulating our instincts, with broader benefits to society?...maybe we need to find a completely new method by which to experience risk and reward, which does not overwhelm our well being in the manner apparent today.





Authors Bio: At a time when this planet and its inhabitants do not appear to be working in synergy, causing serious imbalances and Global Warming, I offer a personal view of our current plight in a combination of personal experiences, science, religion and psychology. If your questions are not getting answers from a single belief system, as previously mine did not, I hope my perspectives on life may stimulate further thought for you. I am a member of the human race and it is in this context that I offer my own observations on life as a possible contribution to our development – a right available to us all. Born and bred in London, in addition to Wendy my partner of 10 years, and my children - Rob, Mike and Sue, I love Rugby, Motor Racing, Scuba Diving, Furniture Restoration, Books, Wine and Cooking Good Food.