By: MARGARET BROWN
Margaret Brown is one of The Resident’s longest standing contributors and has lived in the Algarve for more than 20 years. As well as Point of View, she also writes Country Matters twice a month.
WITH MANY 20th century people having discarded the principles and practice of Christian tenets in the developed world, today’s citizens appear to have transposed them with their own version of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Before the sexual revolution of the 1960s, the right to take one’s pleasure with whoever happened to be handy when the need arose, in whatever gender combination fitted the bill, was called Lust. Now, even in the absence of love, it has become one’s right to choose.
Avarice and Greed continue to be two sides of the same coin especially in the currency of the financial sector – money begets money and the coffers are never full. When the economy takes a downturn, the wise pocket their profits, buy when the market bottoms out and the merry-go-round starts again.
Then there is old fashioned Envy which seems to have become the driving force behind success at all costs, to have or improve upon other people’s achievements in any chosen field by whatever it takes and whoever is hurts.
Envy
Gluttony, a relative of Greed, has no place among more than half the planet’s population. They live with hunger day by day and fade away like grass in time of drought.
Anger fired by Envy, especially among the under privileged in an affluent society, breeds an urge to destroy what others have, and excessive Pride in status and possessions adds fuel to the fires of hate among the ‘Have Nots’.
All these sins have been present throughout the ages, some might say kept partially under control by harsh rule and rigorous punishment. A sense of right and wrong, an active conscience nurtured by sound family upbringing and for many, Christian belief and a healthy fear of retribution are still around but keeping a low profile at this time.
