Still not clear. \u00a0When does a desire become intense? I remember back in college that sometimes friends and I would go out seeking pleasant short-term feminine companionship. I would call those desires intense and selfish. Back then, fifty years ago, there was kind of a \u201cboys will be boys\u201d mentality about \u201ccruising for babes.\u201d Today it is considered to be far more predatory than it was then. There are a lot of names you could have called our behavior back then, but I never considered \u201cgreedy\u201d to be one of them.<\/p>\n
If a student athlete wants to be good enough to someday be drafted into the National Football League, he might undertake the following: he begins his workouts every day at 6 a.m.; he spends hours each week studying game film to improve his own skills and figure out the tendencies of whoever is going to be his college opponent next week; he avoids drugs; he\u2019s the last one to leave practice every day. It\u2019s fair to call this athlete very intense. Although he loves the game, the potential million dollar benefits are certainly a part of working that hard. He may well be looking forward to buying his mother a house, but most of his thoughts about using this money are personal and selfish.<\/p>\n
I would call the behavior in the preceding paragraph appropriate actions for somebody with a plan. Laudable behavior. Give that kid a standing ovation for working so hard. The actions, though, meet the Oxford Dictionary definition of \u201cgreed\u201d namely \u201cintense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food.\u201d I think it\u2019s far better to praise this young man for trying to make something of himself than it is to castigate him for the sin of greed.<\/p>\n
I have heard the term greed used in at least four separate gambling contexts recently. Perhaps you didn\u2019t hear of these particular instances, but I\u2019m confident you\u2019ve heard of similar ones.<\/p>\n
The first was on a video poker bulletin board where somebody posted a picture of a $1,500 jackpot on a quarter Triple Double Bonus Ultimate X game with the note, \u201cUnfortunately the greed took over and I kept playing and ended up with only $700. I hate when that happens!\u201d<\/p>\n
The second followed a story about another Las Vegas casino planning on charging for parking. This comment by a player who was unhappy with the casino\u2019s decision started off with \u201cGreed! Greed! Greed!\u201d<\/p>\n
The third was a comment from a quarter player who was mad at all the five dollar players for being greedy and winning all the drawings.<\/p>\n
The fourth was about a player who hit three royal flushes in two weeks at a casino after which the casino kicked him out. The comment from another player was, \u201cServes him right for being so greedy!\u201d<\/p>\n
These examples do not follow the Oxford Dictionary definition.\u00a0 The first case resulted from normal swings in a game with sky-high variance. If the swings went up, the person would have felt intelligent, skillful, and proud. When the swings went down, the player blamed greed. To me, it\u2019s a case of the player either not understanding the normal swings of the game or being a bad loser.<\/p>\n
In the second and third example, we have somebody else taking actions that cause our lives to be a little more expensive. Since they<\/em> did it to us, then they<\/em> are greedy! I see the world as a bunch of moving parts where each person is trying to do what\u2019s best for himself. I do not expect anybody else to roll over and play dead in order for me to succeed. If they block me going to the left, I go to the right. As our outgoing first lady said recently, \u201cIf they go low, we go high.\u201d I do not see this as greed on their part. Or on my part for adjusting to what they are doing.<\/p>\n In the fourth example, the player was greedy because he hit three royals? I don\u2019t know anybody who knows for sure when he\u2019s going to hit his next royal, let alone his next three. Royals happen in their own good time. It is possible you\u2019re going to hit three royals tomorrow. It\u2019s possible it\u2019s going to be months and months before you hit that many.<\/p>\n The player who hits three royal flushes in a short period of time is fortunate. But greedy? Like he did it on purpose just to spite the casino? I might well have some unkind words about a slot director who thinks getting royals quickly is a sign of great skill, but calling the player greedy? I don\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n What would I call greedy? Well, if there was only so much food for, say, four people, then taking more than a fourth of it before others have had a chance to eat would be greedy. If some food was left over at the end, then that\u2019s fair game. Or perhaps two roommates were both trying to get ready to go and they had a deal that 15 minutes in the bathroom at a time was all you got. Someone who took more than that is greedy, in my opinion.<\/p>\n What these examples have in common is that there\u2019s a fixed amount of something and sharing is the name of the game. In this context, greed is refusing to share. In a game situation, where players compete against each other, refusing to share is often the sensible thing to do.<\/p>\n If you think of the world as a closed system and everybody from all lands are brothers, then you can come up with some sense of greed. In this context, you\u2019ll see \u201cgreen\u201d philosophies, which basically try to save the environment for everybody. Within that context, people who refuse to save the environment are greedy.<\/p>\n But you\u2019re not going to get universal agreement on this. I can easily support a \u201ctake nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints\u201d philosophy when visiting a national forest. Whether we should shut down a lumber industry to save an endangered species of owl is a topic of spirited emotions on both sides.<\/p>\n If you cannot or will not see the world as a closed system and you believe it is \u201cevery man for himself,\u201d then greed isn\u2019t well defined, at least to me. Or perhaps, Gordon Gekko\u2019s \u201cGreed is good!\u201d makes sense. I do not see the world that way, but I\u2019ll be damned if I can figure out exactly where the lines of demarcation go.<\/p>\n I assume you know what it means to be greedy. If I\u2019m right about this assumption, then you\u2019re ahead of me. I\u2019m very confused by what the word means. I Googled \u201cWhat is greed?\u201d It came back with the Oxford Dictionary definition, “intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food.\u201d It mentioned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[522,1346,1344,1347,1349,1345,220,1348,196,1242],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Facebook\"](\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/96x96\/facebook.png\" "\\"Follow")
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