Thinking Out LoudAccording to recent reports the “Fear and Greed Index” is on the move – and it’s trending towards fear. The amusingly named index – developed by CNN’s finance team – tracks the emotional health of the economy. Curiously, it only tracks those two emotions. Humans are reduced to either being scared or wanting more. As one rises, the other falls.
An oversimplification? Perhaps. Reducing us to creatures that lurch from self-preservation to self-advancement feels like an unfair caricature. But when I reflect on how I feel before an RBA interest rate decision or the time I spend (sorry, waste) browsing online car and real estate ads, I have no defence.
The index is eerily accurate. Unemployment, inflation, consumption, and various other aspects of human behaviour seem reasonably linked to how scared or greedy we’re feeling. The fear-greed dichotomy might be a 21st century adaptation of 4thcentury theologian Augustine’s diagnosis of the chronic human condition: people being “curved in on themselves”.
Fear and greed seem insurmountable. And we know it. We have democracy because we can’t trust ourselves with power. We have contracts because we can’t trust our promises. We have militaries because we can’t sort out conflict without violence. We have criminal laws because we can’t be trusted not to hurt each other. Human civilisation increasingly seems to be an exercise in navigating human brokenness.
The Christian message doesn’t sugar coat it either. The Bible declares that there is no one righteous, not even one! But it doesn’t leave us there. Instead, it rebukes fear, warns against greed, and calls on people to overcome selfishness with sacrifice. It’s an audacious prescription – that we can overthrow our worst instincts with love. But if it’s true, it changes everything.
This Thinking Out Loud was first published on Facebook.