Greed’s ties to Technology and Values

(By guest blogger, Organizational Psychiatrist: David E. Morrison, M.D.)

The bloggers for this web page and authors of  The A.B.C.s of Behavioral Forensics (Wiley, 2013) argue that the motivations for fraud lie much deeper than the conventional wisdom’s diagnosis, “greed.”  As a consulting psychiatrist, I fully endorse that argument.  But I cannot dismiss the concept of greed as no more than a shallow excuse for wrongdoing among corporate fraudsters—that seems like a cop out!

Greed, in its hydra-headed, multifarious forms, has become a “clear and present” danger to our society.  My thoughts are triggered by two recent publications.  One is Sherry Turkle’s book, Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age (Penguin Books, 2015).  The other is a David Brooks’ column, The Evolution of Simplicity (November 3, 2015), in The New York Times. 

Turkle writes that people explain their “inability” to pay attention to friends, children, and even lovers by saying, “I have to be on my phone and other devices [and] because I am so busy I don’t have time to keep in touch with my friends.”  Brooks argues that in contrast with the simplicity movements of Thoreau[1] and Holmes[2], today’s yearnings for simplicity occur in a world of “rampant materialism and manifold opportunities.”

I believe both authors are referring to a greed that goes beyond money and is far more insidious.  Psychologically, greed means you consume without gratification.  Therefore, you are never satiated.  Thus, you consume without satisfaction, or feeling you have had enough.  You may feel pleasure, but you don’t feel happy.

Every “yes” is a thousand “no”s.

We have a society that does not know how to live in a state of abundance.  Philosophers have been lauding abundance for decades, but they have not seen its dangers for people who don’t know how to deal with it and who live in our consumer-oriented society.  People today are immersed in constant manipulations of their inclinations (think marketing, advertising, product placement, even to children!.) to acquire more and more.  But every “yes” is a thousand “nos.”  For every opportunity we commit to, there are many more opportunities that are declined because we said “yes”. By saying “no” we are setting limits.

Few institutions teach people to set limits on their impulse to acquire things, experiences, friends, victories, accomplishments.  To quite the contrary, self-help authors warn against being “too negative,” “good enough,” and “yes, but….”  These are notions that help us to set limits.  But limits are seen as bad in society today.  Without limits, humans become chaotic, exhausted, and The Self becomes fragmented.

Experiencing Greed, in the end, is miserable

The underlying problem here is indeed greed.  Nobel laureate Herbert Simon observed, “A wealth of stimulus creates a poverty of attention.” What Turkle misses in her book is that greed is what enables social media to rob us of focused attention, solitude, the opportunity for self-reflection, empathy, conversation, and all the other human needs she so clearly describes as being lost because of technology.

Brooks’ column brushes the surface of the issues, but it speaks to something else Turkle misses in her book—the deepest reason why people today sell their “souls (integrated self, autonomy, empathy, and the other essentials of being human).”  He writes, “One of the troublesome things about today’s simplicity movements is that they are often just alternate forms of consumption.  Instead of stripping away the chaos, they refine it with a more “organic, locally-grown and morally status-building form of materialism.”

Greed, along with envy, is one of the seven deadly sins.  Greed is even more primitive than envy and just as dangerous to the person and our society.  If we are to balance work, family, and self, we must say, “No,” frequently (setting limits), certainly more than saying, “Yes.”  Balance requires us to turn down things we want and even things we think we need.  But there’s a challenge for people who want balance:  We’ve had almost a century  of constant campaigning to see “yes” as good and “no” as bad.[3]

How much is enough to be fulfilled?

Glorifying consumption is an important component of capitalism and many people feel helpless to resist this pull (and onslaught).  They don’t even know that it’s an issue for them.  And to think about it as an issue makes them anxious.  The personal challenge is that it’s not just things that we are to consume.  We are encouraged to “grab all the gusto we can get,” “live your dream,” and become fulfilled.  Hoping to become fulfilled, people unreflectively go after information, images, friends (who needs more than 500+ “friends,” a la Facebook and LinkedIn, let alone thousands?), admiration, love, attention, power, and, yes, money (which is seen as a resource for getting the other things).

It’s important for leaders to address greed and the distractions of social media if they want to have productive meetings, loyal people, and problem solvers who can get to the real underlying problems (with their ability to focus, without distraction, beyond the surface and immediate issues to their causes).  To say nothing of finding balance in their own lives.

Even if greed is not the exclusive cause of fraud it is still a very destructive human response. In significant ways people are conned by unrelenting stimulation of their most primitive motivation, greed.  That may not produce fraudsters but it does contribute to personal problems and sometimes even fraud.

David Morrison MD has advised industry and local governments for over forty years. His clients have included the professional service firms, such as Andersen, and other industries including banks, manufacturing, retail and technology. He has advised City Managers of the affluent Chicago North Shore on issues of greed and balance as well.