Jezebel riled up the elders of the town. They colluded and conspired. Naboth was set up. One thing led to another. Naboth was stoned to death. The greedy grabbed the vineyard. The greedy was happy, but not for long. If you read the book I read, comb through and you’ll find the rest of the story. The thrust of this is that greedy men can steal, kill, and destroy lives, including their own. I admonish men and women doing business around ambitious greed-freaks. Watch your back!
It comes in different names and shades. It’s the surreal salivation for more. A perverted push for more gold. A cocky surge for more silver. An impudent move to conquer more territories. A brassy march to amass more slaves to lord over. A brassbound zest for the more vulnerable to oppress. And a brash zeal for more human beings to confine into their serfdom kingdom. It is called greed. And it comes in different names and shades. Call it what you wish in any linguistic twist or tongue of your choosing. Brand it what you want, it is known by sundry nomenclatures. Avarice. Avidity, Rapacity. Covetousness. They all descend from the same genre. It is still greed: the demonic desire to dig in for more and the fervour to salivate for what you have no need for even when you have enough.
In many nations, greed is the crowned king. In many palaces, it is the sceptre. For those who drool and slobber after power, greed is the desired dopamine. For those who think they can live forever, greed is their tranquiliser. With men of affluence and influence, greed is a geek. And with men of authority, it is an intoxicant. He who has more, wants more. He who has sufficient gives no hoot about the young or the old. His preoccupation is to occupy a slot of power and then drain more from those who are dying from not enough. Can I ask you this, sir? You’ve got it all, what more do you want?
I have a clear understanding of boiling human desire. It’s always around the spirit of more. Matter of fact, who doesn’t want more of something gratifying? I am yet to locate the businessman who declares that he’s had enough of making more for his burgeoning or booming business. I am yet to see a mogul set up his business bureau to shoot for less. You may ask what more a billionaire businessman wants that makes him want more billions. What more does a kingmaker want in wanting to be king? Does he want to become God? Divinity has not yet found a way around satisfying created beings. Human wants are insatiable. But in our appetency for more, must man lose his commonsense?
Created beings always dig up for more. They want more gold. More silver. More power. More influence. More affluence. Men with bizarre ambition and raging schizophrenia routinely scheme for more. In the maddening move for more they eventually make the morgue their mansion and the grave a resting place. A man, who could have had twenty more years added to his life, goes kaput twenty years before time. Sir, while your eyes still see the sunshine, while you still have an ocular grasp of the moonlight up in the firmament and while you are able to sight the stars blazing up in splendour and beauty in the second heaven, I ask this: You’ve got it all, what more do you want?
I have read many times the story of a man with a raging ambition. His name was King Ahab. Ahab was a ruling royalty who controlled a vast palace with menservants and maidservants jumping over each other at the blast of his command. He had it all. Naboth the Jezreelite was a regular guy in town who owned a snazzy and pizzazzy vineyard. Ahab the king with deep wealth wanted what a peon like Naboth owned.
“Give me your vineyard so I can use it as a kitchen garden; it’s right next to my house—so convenient. In exchange, I’ll give you a far better vineyard, or if you’d prefer, I’ll pay you money for it,” Ahab raged in demand.
“It’s my family inheritance. I won’t give it up,” said Naboth.
King Ahab was depressed. He was sleepless. But he was married to evil Jezebel, his life-partner-in-depravity.
“Dearie, what’s going on? Why are you so out of sorts and refusing to eat?” inquired Jezebel.
Ahab told his wife why.
“Is that all, Honey? I’ll get it for you. You know me. I get what I want. Especially for you; the love-of-my-life”.
Jezebel riled up the elders of the town. They colluded and conspired. Naboth was set up. One thing led to another. Naboth was stoned to death. The greedy grabbed the vineyard. The greedy was happy, but not for long. If you read the book I read, comb through and you’ll find the rest of the story. The thrust of this is that greedy men can steal, kill, and destroy lives, including their own. I admonish men and women doing business around ambitious greed-freaks. Watch your back!
Ambition, they say, is the path to success. Great ambition, I heard, is the passion of a great character. There is nothing wrong with being ambitious. But baroque ambition—a higher level of inordinate ambition—is a killer. No one can convince a man with baroque ambition from travelling down his self-destructive path. He drives his own vehicle. He dreams his own dreams. He listens to his own voice and not to one of reason. And he is like a buzzing honeybee that abandons its sweet hexagonal wax cell honeycomb for a pool of African palm wine in which he is eventually drowned in ambition and greed. What was the honeybee looking for? What it has is what billions of creatures in its species are in search of. But baroque ambition drove it to pursue something not as sweet and as precious as what God has already given to him on a silver platter. Among five phenomena that rage in belligerence against the peace of mind is ambition. The others are avarice, envy, anger and pride. If the fingers of God were to obliterate these from human existence, the entirety of humanity will behold perpetual peace and joy unspeakable.
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, a career-scientist-turned-politician was the 11th President of India from 2002-2007. His charisma and accomplishments earned him the nickname, “The People’s President.” Kalam was a beloved president. When his term was up in 2007, the people pressured him to run for another term. He declined. He left office to become a classroom teacher in various Indian universities. People asked him why he didn’t desire more years in power. Kalam answered, “Where do evils like corruption arise from? It comes from the never-ending greed. Greed. The heavy-handed garroting monster. The beastly behemoth that brazenly buries breathing beings. The wantonly wicked and weird weapon, which whisks a nation’s soul deep down into Gehenna. Those who are in love with silver will never be satisfied with silver. Those who love more and more than they need will never catch up with self-satisfaction and contentment. The end of greed freaks is not always sweet. Sir, you’ve got it all, what more do you want?
Fola Ojo
@folaojotweet
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