Egotistic Desire: The Crux of the Human Condition

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Recommended: Literary analysis for the heart of darkness

Gossip: A “vital” but subversive communication between individuals. While idle chit-chat may seem harmless and often uplifting, there are often more ominous undertones to the situation. Those involved try to boost their own social standing and undermine others in conversation. This is in their tunnel-like, restrictive pursuit of personal gain in public reputation at the risk of others feelings. Rumors, fights, and beguile are some of the most common methods of human interface, as they represent a medium to promote selfish desires despite the consequences. Humanity is often seen as a shattered visage overlooking an endless ocean of desire. To truly understand the meaning of the word “human” one must search intrinsically, observe the history of the human race, and analyze their surroundings before making even a mundane hypothesis. Analyzing periods of anxiety, stress, and power struggles are often key to discerning this critical definition. War, anguish, hatred, fear, destruction, ambition, and progress are a few of the many resulting facets of this voracious desire to be deemed as an elite member of the human race. Throughout the history of humanity, the human race has demonstrated that it is defined by the individual’s unquenchable thirst for personal profit above any other goal.
Few events show the depravity and lust of the human condition for personal profit as Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme prior to the real estate crisis of 2008. During the years leading up to and encompassing the stock market bubble, Madoff was in control of one of the largest hedge fund investing companies in the world. He singlehandedly embezzled seventeen point five billion dollars and destroyed the livelihood of hundreds of his hedge fund investors...

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...’s transgressions against the “accepted” rules of human society and civilization serve to remind us of the dangers of the extreme nature of the human condition to seek personal profit. In a sense, it is almost comforting to note that he was killed by being forced to drink liquid gold.

Works Cited

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York: Penguin, 2007. Print.

Golding, William G. Lord of the Flies. New York: Coward-McCann, 1962. Print.

Picard, Irving H. "Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC Liquidation Proceeding."
Madoff Trustee. The Madoff Recovery Initiative, n.d. Web. 21 May 2014.

"Rwanda 1994 Genocide." PPU Information: Genocide. Peace Pledge Union, n.d.
Web. 20 May 2014.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. London: Penguin, 2003. Print.

Plutarch. "The Life of Crassus." Penelope.uchicago.edu. University of Chicago,
n.d. Web. 20 May 2014.

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