The 7 Deadly Sins Are Now American Icons
With the focus of the world on the change of power in Rome, now
seems like an appropriate time to look at some tenets of that
ancient faith as developed through the centuries.
We all break one of the 10 commandments occasionally, and feel
terribly guilty afterwards. The 7 deadly sins are something
else: not only do we too frequently display them, but our
culture seems bent on idolizing them!
Consider:
Pride
The arrogance of believing that our way is the only way and
asserting our certainty about how the world should work is
exemplified by President Bush and his right-wing minions. The
fact that he won re-election confirms that our citizens have no
aversion to excessive pride, no matter what their particular
religious doctrine prescribes.
Envy
"Keeping up with the Joneses" is a cultural pursuit touching all
levels - we want what others have, we want it now, and we will
build up our personal debt (just like the National Debt) to get
it. Not only do we crave the expensive toys that confer rarefied
social status, we rejoice in the fall of our competition and
take secret delight in the firing of a coworker who beat us out
of a promotion or the fall of a public personality who unfairly
seemed to have it all.
Anger
Road rage entered the common vernacular when it became a common
occurrence. We no longer publicly counsel patience and personal
restraint, we laud the value of being upfront and aggressive.
Business executives strive to be straight shooters and drivers,
seeing self-contained, mild workers as passive and
non-managerial material. "I'm mad as hell and I'm not taking it
any more" is a rallying cry for any cause we promote.
Sloth
While we continue to extol the virtues of hard work and personal
effort, we quietly buy our lottery tickets, while away our time
at the alluring casinos now dotting the national landscape, and
enter every contest where we might get something for nothing.
Surf the Internet and try to count the ubiquitous and seductive
ads promising monstrous income levels without work, without
effort, without thought, without meaning.
Greed
We are constantly hearing of scams that have left hundreds of
people penniless, homeless, or otherwise terribly hurt. Why are
so many victimized? Trace the swindle to its core and there sits
greed - the promise of a better investment return, more income,
making a small fortune. While most of us are well aware that
something that sounds too good to be true probably isn't, we
still fall for it if the reward sounds good enough. Do you think
the spammers would keep sending out those emails "I am the widow
of the late Nkrumo Obol who amassed 25 million dollars . . . "
if they never received one response?
Gluttony
Ah! Super-sized America. Two thirds of us are overweight, four
in ten clinically obese. Do we have a national metabolic
problem? No, we are a nation of guzzlers: we eat too, too much
food, consume voluminous cheap foreign goods to the tune of
billions of dollars per year, and siphon the majority of the
earth's oil into our gluttonous SUVs. We have lost all sense of
moderation and balance. We live to consume and then poison our
environment with the garbage such overconsumption produces.
Lust
Forty percent of marriages involve at least one affair. Our
religious leaders, sports stars, celebrities and even a former
President, indulge their libidos when opportunity combines with
personal power. Sex has become the vehicle for selling anything
and everything, its economic value proved over and over.
Desperate housewives and Internet pornography are not mere
"lusting in my heart" but reveal the lurid landscape we have
developed that creates superstars out of those who exude sex and
virility as if it were a talent or a sign of character. We have
birthed industries and empires based solely on gossip, rumor,
and the promise of sexually-oriented details. Plastic surgeons
become millionaires over the bodies they rework for the goal of
increasing desirability and eliciting greater lust in the eyes
of the beholder.
Are these sins really deadly?
Regardless of the "moral value" vote trumpeted after the 2004
elections, few of us regard all manifestations of these sins as
totally unacceptable. We may be tempted, we may fall short of
our aspirations. But when we elevate such personal and
characterological weaknesses to the level of cultural goals, we
pay the price: a violent, dangerous, and self-destructive
society that demands ever more aggressive security, protection,
and policing, and produces a burgeoning prison population.