Wealth and it's illusion (#1019)

How illustrative is the mental picture of a person sitting in a room full of gold coins, basking in their good fortune with a measure of addiction enough to circulate their endorphins on a continual loop. Not only are the gold coins a work of art but they represent wealth in such a way as to make a person exhibit the real possibility of making fantasy and illusion come true. Such is the making of the demi-god. We have all been raised in our society to constrain ourselves under the principled guidelines of shared sacrifice and restrictive individualism. Most will not ever have the ability or the circumstances in their lives to accumulate great wealth so more pragmatic solutions for living are contrived and accepted. When those who are able to have the "room full of gold coins" are suddenly released from normal societal restraints, another paradigm opens up for them. They are now suddenly heralded and looked upon with envy and awe. So, instead of keeping with the ideal that wealth is just a means for barter, they demand and command an ideal greater than just reality. They move to a place in their minds where justification of their own perceived specialness has overridden normal insightful instruction. Certainly, those who have attained success have a right to their own happiness but when they cannot disassociate themselves from the idea of success in commerce with the idea that somehow they are greater human beings than those with lesser economic prowess, they lose touch with reality and begin to live in an egoistic illusion. Success in life in any area of endeavor is to be applauded and encouraged, however, a duty by all of us is simply to recognize that our actions are not divined, they are human and as such we must take care to appreciate what we have done or can do and not allow a mindset of greed to overcome us. Instead a mindset of benevolence should occur and living as the best of what a human can be or do is of more value.