Thread by @jeffblack945

RevThread#1006
Old. Simple. True

1/There’s a fair amount of chaotic evil swirling around America. We can start with the insurrection of January 6th and then the copious infusion of agitating rhythms coming through Facebook to denigrate young girls...

2/ the groveling adoration of He Whose Name Would Sully Our Lips, the lock-step robotic unity in the GOP as their overlord keeps assaulting the Constitution and common decency.

3/For starters, that should do it. Then if we dare lift our eyes, we can see that decency and democracy -- the fundamental idea that other people exist and have as much right to thrive as those who look just like me -- are unravelling on continent after continent.

4/ What unites and drives all this malevolence?

5/What is, before our eyes, ruining Trump, Pence, Erdogan, Zuckerberg, McConnell, Putin et al? What went into them and grew and now spills out from them? What prompts their hatred of justice? What makes them so insatiable, so endlessly unsatisfied?

6/ Greed.

7/ A wise older priest one time confided to me, “You can never get enough of what you do not need.”

8/Vaguely hungry in the mid-afternoon? There’s a big bag of potato chips in the cupboard. Salty, greasy, yummy. Not one thing in them my body needs. If I start on them, I’ll stop when the bag’s last broken remnant of a chip is in my cheek.

9/There’s also a bag of shelled walnuts. Just a handful and I stop snacking. That old priest, a guy named Jim, was right. You can never get enough of what you do not need.

10/I drive a 25 year old pickup. Crank windows, standard transmission. I trust it, it gets me around just fine. I live in the country, surrounded by meadows & low mountains that, at the moment, are in their autumnal glory. Walking the hills with my collie is very satisfying.

11/What do all the monsters listed above not get? What transforms those once decent citizens to storm our nation’s Capitol? They can never get enough of what they do not need.

12/ Occasionally I’ll pick up and turn over a rotting log on the property. There’s always a swarm of insects chewing away. Their ferocity reminds me of those insurrectionists.

13/Our culture inculcates greed. All day. The message of all those ads is always the same -- You do not have _____. You must get ____. If you get ____ you’re with the winners, if you can’t, you’re a pathetic loser.

14/ There’s a price we pay for this constant manipulation of our desires. We’re being reduced from bearers of the image of God to voracious insects.

15/Confront the greed inside. Learn the ways of modesty. Cherish the ones you connect with. Mute the damn ads. Breathe the good free air again.