{"id":1640,"date":"2014-09-18T11:27:56","date_gmt":"2014-09-18T16:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/?p=1640"},"modified":"2014-09-18T11:30:52","modified_gmt":"2014-09-18T16:30:52","slug":"poem-dead-precedents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/18\/poem-dead-precedents\/","title":{"rendered":"POEM: Dead Precedents"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The whirled is full of dollereds<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Strewing up our future<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>With dead precedents<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>And we no where<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Greed takes us<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This short poem addresses the persistence of greed, even though its poor outcomes are well documented and embedded in human experience.\u00a0 The temptation to game the system and cheat reality by stirring up greed can only be explained by bad thinking or a shortage of moral fiber.\u00a0 Of course, greed begets greed.\u00a0 How could it be otherwise?\u00a0 The moral compass we follow &#8212; or don&#8217;t follow &#8212; sets in motion a cascade of like results.\u00a0 Greed and selfishness produces a shaky foundation and towering houses of cards and sharp objects as a testament to the denial of the gravity of the situation.\u00a0 Life presents inescapable moral choices.\u00a0 We may not like the choices available, but reality has a profound persistence and deep order.\u00a0 It strikes me that a fundamental orientation or choice in life is whether to game the existing set of circumstances to one&#8217;s own marginal advantage and the whole&#8217;s marginal disadvantage, OR to commit one&#8217;s self to understanding and accepting the facts of human existence and devoting your existential force to participating in the good of the whole.\u00a0 Saying &#8220;NO&#8221; to greed is a good start and landmark for the journey.\u00a0 We know where greed takes us &#8212; to an unending chain of dead precedents; a world replete with moral dullards.\u00a0 Disciplined compassion, joyful curiosity, and ebullient hope take us places better than we can even imagine, where we can be joyous and free in harmony with humanity and the created world.\u00a0 May it be so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The whirled is full of dollereds Strewing up our future With dead precedents And we no where Greed takes us This short poem addresses the persistence of greed, even though its poor outcomes are well documented and embedded in human &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/18\/poem-dead-precedents\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[336,339,640,363,411,428,539,635,117,446,388,305,408,79,359,155,658,94,107,601,517,53,492],"class_list":["post-1640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","category-political-and-philosophical-musings","tag-choices","tag-compassion","tag-curiosity","tag-denial","tag-existential","tag-experience","tag-facts","tag-future","tag-greed","tag-harmony","tag-hope","tag-humanity","tag-journey","tag-joy","tag-life","tag-moral","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-poor","tag-reality","tag-selfish","tag-short-poems","tag-temptation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>POEM: Dead Precedents | Poems, Political and Philosophical Musings | Top Pun&#039;s Poetry, Funny Puns, Free Posters, Public Health Radio Show! 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