Greed Kills

Author James Ray has decided that he will not be giving anymore motivational talks or leading any more Spiritual Warrior Seminars until the investigations of the sweat-lodge deaths are complete.

Ray was paid over $600,000 for the event in which 3 people lost their lives and 19 were sickened when more than 60 people packed themselves into a sweat lodge and tried to push past their own inner resistance last month. The price for the seminar was nearly $10,000 per person.

The facts are fairly simple. The leader of the sweat lodge was not conversant with Native American sweat lodge traditions. The sweat lodge event was enormous. Traditional sweat lodges never include so many people, and never charge a fee. They also do not include the use of plastic sheeting, which prevents the exchange of gasses with the outside environment. Building a plastic tent and then packing 64 people into it without the addition of heated rocks and steam would likely cause health problems.

These people came to the seminar hoping that Ray would teach them how to attract wealth. For far less, a financial advisor could have told them how to make that money attract more money in a mutual fund, and all of them, all 64 of them, would be alive to tell how it worked. For some, the money would have been more wisely spent on health insurance, because not all of them had it. It is hard to decide which proposition is sadder, spending $10,000 to learn how to attract wealth, or having that much money to spare, and not realizing that you already have plenty.

The cause of the tragedy, aside from Ray’s stupidity, was greed. Ray is a symptom of a society that has replaced every meaningful pursuit with one pursuit—getting money. If ever the citizens of a culture could be charged with idolatry, Americans could. The pursuit of wealth leads to families with absentee parents. Married couples spend little time together, each spouse tied up at work, trying to “make a career,” which really amounts to making money. Their children raise themselves in homes where every modern convenience exists, but where time with parents is scarce.

Driven on by the consumer creed—“Buy, buy, and buy some more”—people find themselves crushed under consumer debt that they have no hope of ever paying off. A large part of the current recession resulted from greed, both that of unethical mortgage brokers who sold loans to people who couldn’t pay them, and that of people who thought it was their right to live in a McMansion.

Greed drives the current health care reform debate. Hospitals, health care practitioners, drug companies, and insurance companies are loath to part with a single dime. Rather than seeing that providing everyone with health care helps everyone, they fear that they will have to give something away. Mammon forbid! To prevent such a catastrophe, they have convinced conservatives, even normally reasonable ones, that giving everyone something amounts to taking something from everyone.

Halloween has passed and the great Christmas shopping rush is descending. Millions of people will use credit cards to spend money this season that they have no idea how to pay back, rather than simplify their lives. This is greed exacerbated by pride.

No amount of money will ever satisfy avarice. The underlying belief of the greedy man is that there is not enough for everyone; therefore he should make sure he gets enough for himself, lest others take it from him and leave him with nothing. Sadly, this belief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. People take more than their share of whatever is at hand, and others do without. Think about all the third world countries that have been colonized (and raped) for their resources.

Since ancient times, people have celebrated the harvest with feasts. Thanksgiving is not far off, and its message is especially important. Gratitude is the only antidote for greed. Realizing what one has takes the focus off what one lacks. It is also much easier than getting more. Greed is an ugly thing. Sadly, many Americans have lost sight of that fact.