How have greed, anger and lust been institutionalized in today’s world?
Answer Podcast
How Have Greed, Anger, and Lust Been Institutionalized in Today’s World?
We usually think of greed, anger, and lust as personal weaknesses — impurities within individual hearts. While that’s true, what is especially dangerous today is how these impulses have been institutionalized — embedded within powerful social, economic, and political systems — and are now driving the collective direction of humanity toward destruction.
1. Institutionalized Greed
We live in a global economy where two unspoken assumptions reign supreme:
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Companies can never have enough profit.
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Consumers can never have enough products.
A company is seen as successful if it keeps increasing profits. Individuals are seen as successful if they keep increasing consumption. This endless cycle of expansion and consumption devastates the environment and ignores the non-economic costs — ecological destruction, resource depletion, and social inequality.
Even if a CEO is aware of these consequences, they often can’t act on them. Why? Because their accountability is primarily to shareholders. If profits drop, they may be fired. Thus, even individuals who are not personally greedy get caught in systems that force them to act greedily. These institutional structures pressure both insiders (like employees and executives) and outsiders (like consumers) to conform.
So, just as greed can make an individual’s life miserable, institutionalized greed can make the entire world a miserable place.
2. Institutionalized Anger
Anger is no longer just a personal emotion — it is manipulated and magnified by institutions. Through ideological propaganda, entire groups are taught to hate other groups.
Some disturbing historical examples include:
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The Nazi regime’s propaganda against Jews.
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Extremist interpretations of Islam, teaching hatred for all non-believers.
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Communist movements, which incited laborers to hate the wealthy.
When political parties, governments, or religious groups use their influence to incite hatred, that is institutionalized anger. The consequences are horrifying — genocides, terrorism, riots, and civil wars.
Moreover, in today’s world, greed and anger have been combined in what former U.S. President Eisenhower termed the military-industrial complex. Here’s how:
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The arms industry thrives on greed — it seeks more and more profit by manufacturing weapons.
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Governments or factions driven by anger use those weapons to wage war.
Even nations that had previously lived peacefully import weapons and hatred, then turn against each other. Wars have always existed, but the scale and destructiveness of modern warfare — fueled by this dangerous alliance — is unprecedented.
3. Institutionalized Lust
Initially, sexually explicit images were used to sell other products. But now, those images have become the products themselves, especially in the pornography industry.
The porn industry generates more revenue in the U.S. than major sports leagues like baseball, basketball, or even soccer. Here again, lust has been married to greed, creating a system where human sexuality is commodified, addiction is encouraged, and social values are degraded.
Institutions make everything more powerful. When greed, anger, or lust is institutionalized, it amplifies the damage they can cause. A person angry with someone might throw a stone. But if they’re given a gun — especially an automatic one — their anger can kill dozens or even hundreds.
The Alarming Outcome
Today, institutionalized lust, anger, and greed are degrading not just our morality, but our very functionality as a society:
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The environment is collapsing.
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Economic disparity is widening.
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Hate-driven violence is rising over increasingly trivial issues.
And perhaps most dangerously, we now live in a world where one hot-headed head of state can trigger wars or launch nuclear weapons, causing devastation to millions or even billions.
This is how lust, anger, and greed have been institutionalized in today’s world, turning inner impurities into global threats.