Greed: Fear: Greed

Chicken and Egg Reasoning: Which came First?

Q:  What’s the biggest driving force in human history, the most prominent reason societies expand, fall, or progress?

A:  I would have to say the main driving force is GREED.  Explanation:

Let’s say King Umpty-Ump wants to build his kingdom, so he marries his two daughters off to the princes of two adjoining kingdoms. This gives him veiled bragging rights to the two kingdoms, but nothing that can be measured.

The King isn’t satisfied yet. To build his kingdom further, he sends his army to overthrow another kingdom. Then one more for good measure.

To fill his nearly empty coffers, King Umpty-Ump now sends his army to take a very wealthy kingdom. This fills his coffers with gold.

The King appoints several soldiers as overlords for peasants and landlords to report to. With so many combined kingdoms, food and shelter have become scarce so he demands building to commence and more crops to be planted.

When crime quadruples because of the huge growth of his vast combined kingdoms, he orders prisons and dungeons built as well as higher walls to protect his many holdings.

King Umpty-Ump grows continually more distrustful and lives under a daily fear of being overthrown.

Pan forward a few years …

This finds King Umpty-Ump on his death bed. He is still not satisfied and wishing he could amass even more. One final thought accompanies his last breath.

“Damn, if I could only take it all with me.”

Yeah, Greed …

Poet/Writer/Author of 5 books.
Quora Top Writer 2018.
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