“Our whole modern way of life, in fact, might seem on reflection to have left behind greed altogether, as we spend rather than save, throw away rather than hoard, and entertain ourselves in the moment rather than invest for the future. Not only that, but one of the key evils of Greed in the classical moral tradition seems no longer to apply.”

Given what I have said in the last installment about Gluttony, you might well be wondering what we could possibly say about the distinctive shape of Greed in a digital age. Digital content, by its nature, cannot be possessed in the way that the traditional objects of avarice can; not only is it physically insubstantial, but it is limitlessly replicable, much to the dismay of the music industry. Whatever our attempts to extend the logic of ownership to digital content via intellectual property agreements, the fact remains that such content is essentially consumed (without limit) rather than possessed, inasmuch as possession pressupposes a certain scarcity. As such, as we saw last week, the digital world may well be a site for something like the vice of gluttony, as we devour a smorgasbord of ever-new content and gadgets, but even our hardware devices–our laptops, tablets, and smartphones–are so transient as to have become more consumer goods than productive assets. (We will recall that for Aquinas, the essential contrast between Greed on the one hand and Lust and Gluttony on the other, is that Greed is an inordinate desire for the “useful good,” Lust and Gluttony for “the delightful good.”)

Our whole modern way of life, in fact, might seem on reflection to have left behind Greed altogether, as we spend rather than save, throw away rather than hoard, and entertain ourselves in the moment rather than invest for the future. Not only that, but one of the key evils of Greed in the classical moral tradition seems no longer to apply. Aquinas says of Greed, “it is a sin directly against one’s neighbor, since one man cannot over-abound in external riches, without another man lacking them, for temporal goods cannot bepossessed by many at the same time” (ST IIaIIae Q. 88 a. 1 ad 2), and we are inclined to chuckle at his ignorance. What zero-sum thinking! We now know that productive investments can create wealth, so that one man can abound without depriving another. And even if this is not nearly so true as we might like to think in the realm of external goods, it is certainly the case in the digital world. Recent headlines in the news about “net neutrality” underscore this conviction: the internet is a great global commons, in which all can have equal access, and none ought to be able to buy special rights of way.

But if we leave things here, we have delved only very superficially into the essence of Greed. The second and greater evil of Greed, says Aquinas, consists “in the internal affection which a man has for riches when, for instance, a man loves them, desires them, or delights in them, immoderately. On this way by covetousness a man sins against himself, because it causes disorder in his affections, though not in his body as do the sins of the flesh. As a consequence, however, it is a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, inasmuch as man contemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things” (ST IIaIIae Q. 88 a. 1 ad 2).

Indeed, it is only when we consider the nature of this disordered affection that we can understand the extraordinary condemnations that Scripture reserves for Mammon–“the love of money is the root of all evil.” There are few better places to go for such insight than the Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:16-21): “The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.”

The most striking thing about this little soliloquy is its solipsism: “within himself,” “I,” “I,” “my,” “I,” I,” “my,” “I,” “my,” “my,” “I, “my.” Here is a man who is completely wrapped up in himself, so much so that he makes little speeches to himself, talking to his soul like an old friend. This gives us the first key to the heart of avarice.

The other key is found in James 4:13-14: “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”