P3+MWeir

It’s the feeling in you stomach. It’s the voice inside your head, right and wrong. It’s not just black and white. The grey area exists. Survival, greed, and power warp an individual’s perspective of what is right and what is wrong. In the end, it is the individual’s own prosperity that allows them to justify their own injustices. People who are just trying to survive wrong others in desperation just to stay alive. The Great Depression weakened the affected people’s moral in order that they get the necessities that they did not have. “The association of owners knew one day the praying would stop” (//Grapes of Wrath//). Because of such despairing times, people lost the one thing that they knew was good, God. They had lost their jobs, their land, their God, and their hope. “A single tractor took my land” (//Grapes of Wrath//). Farmers turned on farmers in order to earn an honest day’s pay. “Love thy neighbor” no longer applies. “Jesus Christ, I’d shoot ‘em for dog feed first” (//Grapes of Wrath//). Violence is now the weapon of choice in purchasing dog food. Desperation fogs the definition of right and wrong. It is no longer survival of the fittest, it is survival of the most desperate. The desire for wealth and possessions overpower one’s own conduct. “I saw no yuppies in threadbare suits sifting through trash bags” (“Homeless, Expose the Myths”). That’s because yuppies in suits do not need to sift. They see these people everyday under freeways and sleeping in the park. The right thing is to help. But, greed succumbs. “Ladies in high heels pick their way through the madness” (“Thoughts on Compassion”). It is an injustice to just walk by and not help these people. But people don’t help because they are more concerned with material things. Greed also comes in the form of exploitation. “Now look here, I’m givin’ you my shirt an’ you took all this time. I might have made three sales while I been talkin’ to you. I’m disgusted. Yeah, sign right there” (//Grapes of Wrath//). Scamming, cheating, and lying, all of these things are obviously wrong. But, when money is in plane view, people push back their conscience, take the money, and run. Power, its something of Godly proportions that weak the souls of men and push down their own virtues. “Witness the present Mexican war, the wok of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for, in the outset, the people would not have consented” (“Civil Disobedience”). These people did not consent and the government does not care because the people are weak. They are exploiting the position of the people in order to do whatever they wish. This is all in order to gain strength and dominance. “[The imported slaves] live on rice and beans, the businessmen said. They don’t need much. They wouldn’t know what to do with good wages” (//Grapes of Wrath//). These people are dehumanized. They don’t even get the wages they deserve. They are kept as slaves. The thirst of power allows these people to go on like this. Power can mutate one’s own perspective of right and wrong. The individual’s own benefit masks the wrong and allows them to sleep at night. Power, wealth, and survival change one’s own virtues and gives them the mechanism for evil.