The Dialogues of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi Fraud: An Exploration of the Discourses of Greed, Cliques, Peer Pressure, and Error

A Short History Of Greed

What do we mean by the word “Greed”? Merriam Webster defines greed as “a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed (Merriam Webster 2017).” Moreover, greed is shrouded in the mystery and the shame of being one of the seven deadly sins of Western culture. As Catholic theologian Christopher Kaczor explains, greed is classified amongst the other six “as one of the seven “deadly” or “capital” sins because it leads to other sins (Kaczor 2011). He goes on to explain that greed may lead to lying, to cheating, to stealing and to defrauding others and that therefore greed is viewed as one of the especially repugnant sins. But, to emphasize, greed, as a sin, is not seen as inevitable because the Christian view is to view sinfulness as a personality defect to be overcome through belief and work. Therefore, this explanation of greed describes why, as a culture, and even in the breach, we can point our fingers at the greedy fraudster. Greed, according to this view, and therefore fraud as a result of greed, has nothing to do with psychological issues and is instead seen as a moral failing. Therefore, in our culture, we feel free to criticize those who have been caught being greedy because we feel morally superior to them.