Category: gluttony
money
doesn’t
talk…
it
screams
obscenities.
to defeat the beast use…
humility against pride…
charity against greed…
kindness against envy…
patience against anger…
chastity against lust…
moderation against gluttony…
diligence against sloth…
avarice…
wrath…
and hubris…
for victory…
be humble…
be patient…
be generous…
The Garden of Earthly Delights
Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450â1516)
The Garden of Earthly Delights is a triptych painted by the early Netherlandish master Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450â1516), housed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid since 1939. Dating from between 1490 and 1510, when Bosch was about 40 or 50 years old, it is his best-known and most ambitious work. The masterpiece reveals the artist at the height of his powers; in no other painting does he achieve such complexity of meaning or such vivid imagery.
The triptych is painted in oil and comprises a square middle panel flanked by two rectangular wings that can close over the center as shutters. These outer wings, when folded shut, display a grisaille painting of the earth during the Creation. The three scenes of the inner triptych are probably (but not necessarily) intended to be read chronologically from left to right. The left panel depicts God presenting Adam to Eve, while the central panel is a broad panorama of sexually engaged nude figures, fantastical animals, oversized fruit and hybrid stone formations. The right panel is a hellscape and portrays the torments of damnation.
Art historians and critics frequently interpret the painting as a didactic warning on the perils of life’s temptations. However the intricacy of its symbolism, particularly that of the central panel, has led to a wide range of scholarly interpretations over the centuries. 20th-century art historians are divided as to whether the triptych’s central panel is a moral warning or a panorama of paradise lost. American writer Peter S. Beagle describes it as an “erotic derangement that turns us all into voyeurs, a place filled with the intoxicating air of perfect liberty”. (read more)
The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus FRS (13 February 1766 â 23 December 1834), was a British scholar, influential in political economy and demography. Malthus popularised the economic theory of rent.
Malthus has become widely known for his theories concerning population, and its increase or decrease in response to various factors. The six editions of his Principles of Population, published from 1798 to 1826, observed that sooner or later population gets checked by famine, disease, and widespread mortality. He wrote in opposition to the popular view in 18th-century Europe that saw society as improving, and in principle as perfectible. William Godwin and the Marquis de Condorcet, for example, believed in the possibility of almost limitless improvement of society. So, in a more complex way, did Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose notions centered on the goodness of man and the liberty of citizens bound only by the social contract, a form of popular sovereignty.
Malthus thought that the dangers of population growth would preclude endless progress towards a utopian society: “The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man”. As an Anglican clergyman, Malthus saw this situation as divinely imposed to teach virtuous behaviour. Believing that one could not change human nature, Malthus wrote:
“Must it not then be acknowledged by an attentive examiner of the histories of mankind, that in every age and in every State in which man has existed, or does now exist, that the increase of population is necessarily limited by the means of subsistence, that population does invariably increase when the means of subsistence increase, and, that the superior power of population it repressed, and the actual population kept equal to the means of subsistence, by misery and vice.”
Malthus placed the longer-term stability of the economy above short-term expediency. He criticised the Poor Laws, and (alone among important contemporary economists) supported the Corn Laws, which introduced a system of taxes on British imports of wheat. He thought these measures would encourage domestic production, and so promote long-term benefits.
Malthus became hugely influential, and controversial, in economic, political, social and scientific thought. Many of those whom subsequent centuries sometimes term “evolutionary biologists” also read him, notably Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, for each of whom Malthusianism became an intellectual stepping-stone to the idea of natural selection. Malthus remains a writer of great significance and controversy. (read more)
- Labels: agriculture, gluttony, overpopulation, people, poverty
I’m a custodian
I clean up dirt
It’s a dirty world
somebody’s got to do it
I’m cleaning up around here
Whether one is religious or not, there is much symbolic power in the concepts and language used by the Church (indeed a plurality of churches as splits inevitably developed to cater for divergent views.) For the present writer, religious language is purely metaphor. For him the Bible is a superb compendium of stories rich in metaphor and indeed meaning. He has long left behind any trace at all of literalism in religious or biblical matters. However, he still respects all religions and those that espouse them provided they do not seek to thrust their views down the throats of others or indeed harm others by following misguided beliefs.
There is not a little psychology in the Scriptures and in the traditional teaching promulgated and promoted by the various churches and organised religions. Whether one is religious or not, one can access this wisdom through looking at and contemplating what religious categories sought to represent metaphorically. To cut to the chase here, the category of sins called The Seven Deadly Sins represents a deep insight into human psychology. Even if you are not convinced that such a concept as sin exists you could recast them as The Seven Deadly Desires. For me they represent a deep insight into human psychology.
One of my favourite contemporary philosophers is John Gray who quite simply believes that we overestimated the importance of humankind’s place in the universe or in the scheme of things. He prefers to call us “human animals” rather than “human beings” as he feels this latter term is loaded with presuppositions and indeed prejudices. Of course, we are a special kind of animal – a human animal, but an animal nonetheless. We are heir to many animal instincts and desires. These for the erudite Sigmund Freud, the founder of Psychoanalysis, make up that part of the human psyche which he referred to as the “Id” which for him was literally a cesspit of desires.
Where, you may ask, is this post going? What is it getting at? Well, it is my contention that the present world economic crisis is been caused by the deadly desires of the human animals that live upon this little blue planet in the middle of the frightening infinity of space. Let me list the the seven for you, though I am sure you are really very well acquainted with them. They are: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride. These, you will agree, are deadly desires when they take hold of us. Lust, Gluttony, Greed and Sloth are sins or desires of excess. We literally want to possess everything – we cannot get enough of anything. The Eastern religions see this as a clinging onto things and to people – all of which belongs to the world of impermanence anyway. An international Irish politician, Mr Pat Cox, a former president of the European Parliament has stated rather wisely that what caused the present international global monetary crisis was “the tsunami of greed that gripped the western world.” How right he is and how perspicacious of him. Yes, we poor human animals, often at the mercy of our desires do succumb to lust – for power, for wealth, for boundless happiness, whether sexual or otherwise. We do like to glut ourselves in the best of restaurants. We do like to do things to excess. To that extent we become possessed by our possessions and overwhelmed by our passions – if not virtually smothered by them.
Then, envy and pride are rather pitiful and base desires. It is surely a sign of a considerable lack of self-esteem that pushes us to envy the achievements of others. Then, the old saying that “pride precedes a fall” is ever so true. I am reminded here of the famous Biblical story of the Tower of Babel – a wonderful and wondrous allegory full of metaphorical delight. The early human animal was so besotted with his own prowess that he sought to build the greatest and highest tower ever – one that would reach to the very heavens but alas and alack its destiny was that of destruction. I remember a lecturer calling this the “hubris” of humankind. Hubris is the Greek word for pride.
However, the Church (or churches) did have a balance to this teaching. For each of the Seven Deadly Sins there were, of course, The Seven Virtues which were the cure or antidote, to use a medical metaphor, to each of the evil desires listed above: Chastity, Temperance, Charity, Diligence, Patience, Kindness and Humility. The religious virtues can, of course, be recast as positive human behaviours capable of being executed by the Ego under the influence of the Superego (Conscience) to put this religious language in Freudian terms.
Above The Seven Deadly Sins or The Seven Deadly Vices by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.