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We Know Greed Like We Know Money: Not Really
Post-apocalyptic tales that make us reflect on what greed actually is
I just finished listening to a post-apocalyptic story about a greedy man. The character has always served the powerful and has enjoyed the favours of those at the top for as long as he can remember. His firm belief in hierarchies means he can only head one way: up.
Consequently, his entire life has been marked by this servitude, his morality having proven to be much more flexible than his ambition. As the story opens in a ravaged world where he finds himself alone, his ambition only kicks back in when a recess of order is found and there is someone in charge to look up to. He finally switches sides and pledges his loyalty to the almighty intergalactic entity that he suspects is behind the apocalypse. In order to achieve this, he has sacrificed the last humans alive, his only friends.
In a predictable finale, the deity abandons him because that is all he has ever deserved, and he is left there, on top of the world, its ruins spread all around him for him to reign upon. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the story, but it did make me think and, if you read me regularly, you know I’m rather obsessed with that which sparks my brain into ignition. Specifically, this one made me think of greed.