Viewpoints
Avarice, covetousness, greed
By +Oscar V. Cruz D. D.
It is said and rightly said that good things or good news come in groups of three such as: truth, justice and peace. Human life, human dignity and human rights. Faith. hope and love. But sad to say, it is also true that bad things or bad news also emerge in groups of three as the three basic enticements to human degradation plus no less also than the three further radical premises of the last of them — concretely in conjunction with the enticement of wealth.
The prodding of pride, the yearning of the flesh and the glitter of wealth — this forceful and dangerous tripod of human debasement is duly considered as the composite three-pronged approached to the self-destruction of the integrity and sobriety of the human person. But in addition to effective personal ruin, it is a moral certainty that any man or woman pierced and thus captured by such a psychological and behavioral malady cannot but also eventually ruin others — bringing these down to the gutters of base immorality and lewd shamelessness .
Such is the standing lesson of history. And the same is precisely what is long since happening in this Country now pitifully immersed in poverty, desperation and helplessness. There is a good number of infamous individuals, despicable breeds and repugnant dynasties that squarely fit the despicable and deleterious incarnation of all the three vices of pride unlimited, adultery incorporated and insatiable accumulation of wealth. They are in fact the well advance ethical cancer of the Nation, the ominous anathema of the people. For one reason or another, counter actions and events still find it difficult to uproot them from the face of the Land.
And particularly in conjunction to the strong “Come on!” of the glitter of wealth, this vicious reality has no less than a three-motored engine: Avarice, Greed and Covetousness. This is nothing theoretical but downright realistic as proven even by their respective elementary knowledge. Thus: Avarice is the extreme greed for wealth. Greed is the excessive coveting of wealth. And covetousness is the superlative avarice for wealth. In other words, everyone of the three herein said vices infallibly connotes the other two. In short, whoever is avaricious becomes necessarily and insatiably covetous and greedy of wealth — and vice versa.
The truth is that the above said three-motored engine in the interminable piling of wealth is a factual reality in the Philippines — with special relevance to a rather numerous politicians. These have and hold the so called offices of “public trust” from the top to the bottom of the reigning administration hierarchy. And the over-all consequence of such a seriously adverse socio-political situation specially in the past eight years is neither frivolous nor funny. Since then: The coffers of strictly public funds have been used for personal interests. The offices of public trust have been converted to offices of public distrust. A good number of politicians have been mournfully identified with “crooks”, “thieves” and/or “dishonorable” men and women. And the eventual and consistent victims of all such practices have been likewise the same — the people since then. No wonder then that a rather big majority of them perceive no less than structural avarice, covetousness and greed in the incumbent administration. Sad but true.
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