{"id":391,"date":"2014-04-09T15:19:43","date_gmt":"2014-04-09T23:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/?p=391"},"modified":"2014-04-09T15:19:43","modified_gmt":"2014-04-09T23:19:43","slug":"concupiscence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/concupiscence\/","title":{"rendered":"Concupiscence"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"TweetButton_button\" style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  data-url=\"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/concupiscence\/\" data-text=\"Concupiscence\" data-lang=\"en\">Tweet<\/a><br \/>\n<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,\"script\",\"twitter-wjs\");<\/script><\/div>\n<p>Yea, that&#8217;s right, you heard me. \u00a0<em>Concupiscence. \u00a0<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/concupiscence\" target=\"_blank\">Merriam-Webster<\/a> defines it as strong desire (especially, though not exclusively sexual desire). \u00a0For my purposes here, let us define it as\u00a0the orientation, inclination or innate tendency of human beings to long for things they don&#8217;t (or can&#8217;t or shouldn&#8217;t) have. \u00a0Fleshy or otherwise.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>You there &#8211; trying to sneak out the back! \u00a0I&#8217;m talking about you! \u00a0I&#8217;m talking about all of you. \u00a0Or rather &#8211; all of us.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><\/em>It is a rare (and probably imaginary) person that doesn&#8217;t <em>always<\/em> want something they don&#8217;t have. \u00a0If you have money, you want <em>more<\/em> money. \u00a0If you have a house, you want a <em>bigger<\/em> house. \u00a0If you have a car, you want a <em>better<\/em> car. \u00a0And so on and so on&#8230;Why did I bring this up? \u00a0Only in an effort to understand why we are the way we are. \u00a0This is one of those things that is so universally true that I believe it is part of <em>what<\/em> we are if not who we are.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/?attachment_id=392\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-392\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-392\" alt=\"quote-Blaise-Pascal-concupiscence-and-force-are-the-source-of-1952\" src=\"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/quote-Blaise-Pascal-concupiscence-and-force-are-the-source-of-1952-300x188.png\" width=\"300\" height=\"188\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/quote-Blaise-Pascal-concupiscence-and-force-are-the-source-of-1952-300x188.png 300w, https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/quote-Blaise-Pascal-concupiscence-and-force-are-the-source-of-1952-150x94.png 150w, https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/quote-Blaise-Pascal-concupiscence-and-force-are-the-source-of-1952.png 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>At first glance it seems that a trait like concupiscence must be a good thing. \u00a0People always wanting to better themselves &#8211; what&#8217;s so bad about that? It&#8217;s the source of all our voluntary actions &#8211; Pascal says so! \u00a0Except that it is almost always viewed in a negative light, especially in theology. \u00a0There&#8217;s even a commandment against it (or two, depending on your religion), the one against coveting your neighbor&#8217;s house, goods, or wife. \u00a0And people being people they usually end up trying to take what they want from other people that have what they want. \u00a0Or just hating them for having it. \u00a0That&#8217;s not good. \u00a0Oh wait&#8230;I see that Pascal makes no judgement as to the quality of our voluntary actions.<\/p>\n<p>So then it must be an imperfection, a flaw. \u00a0Something to be resisted, constrained. \u00a0But without it would we ever taken any action at all? \u00a0That would make it an indispensable survival mechanism. \u00a0Truth be told (see what I did there?), it&#8217;s what keeps us going day after day. \u00a0Conversely, we have to watch it or it&#8217;ll get us in trouble. \u00a0But at least it gets us up off the couch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tweet Yea, that&#8217;s right, you heard me. \u00a0Concupiscence. \u00a0Merriam-Webster defines it as strong desire (especially, though not exclusively sexual desire). \u00a0For my purposes here, let us define it as\u00a0the orientation, inclination or innate tendency of human beings to long for things they don&#8217;t (or can&#8217;t&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":398,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions\/398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}