Men Are Our Downfall

[An essay I wrote for English/World Studies]

As stated inthe Bhagavad Gita, "There are three gates leading to hell: lust, anger, and greed. Every sane person should give these up, for they lead to the degradation of the soul." If this passage holds truth, then it can be said that the soul of a man is degraded. Throughout history, there are multitudes of events where these "gates" that allegedly lead to hell have been accessed by men. Given that, a man's lust for power coupled with his ego have ultimately been detrimental to the growth and sustaining of American society because violence and war are the outcomes of his leadership.

Since the founding of this country, history has shown that a man's power lust has caused him to become violent, through means of strengthening his power further, has hurt development. In the early United States, settlers--unhappy with the land they had already claimed--were led by men to drive the Native Americans out of their homes, further west. This atrocity was enacted through the desire for land and resources that the native tribes held claim to, and, during tthat time, land as well as resources were the equivalent of wealth and power. Violence is also shown during the American Civil War, which was primarily vased on man's desire for free labour (slavery). The Confederacy wanted to have slaves so that they could have more human resources, which would be beneficial to sculpting and adding to their power. And even presently, led by a male president, the lust for power continues. The United States is at war with Iraq in the blind rage to take crude oil, a valuable and power-raising resource, from the country. With such events happening and having occurred, the economy of American has reached a recession, showing the harmful effects of such pointless violence.

The ego often attributed to men proves to hold back the true potential of an uninhibited group or groups by restraining its/their actions has hurt development as well. By having such an egotistical outlook on events, a man's vision is clouded, deterrring progress because of conflicting viewpoints. Congress, primarily composed of male members, has made little progress because agreements can hardly be reached between Democrats and Republicans. Neither of the parties feels like surrendering ther position because of their big-headedness, because of their egos. Changes can hardly be made in patriarchal societies such as the United States because of short-sightedness. This view has been manifested in that men will group together, allowing them to be stuck up (egotistical) enough to allow prejudice against those different from themselves. With prejudice allowed, fear has been sown through society, keeping its inhabitants too fearful to be their naturally diverse selves--which is key to enabling change. An inhibition-based culture will make little ameliorations that will lacerate that culture because growth and decision-making are halted.

History has often shown that a man's lust for power has caused him to be violent, through means of strengthening his power further. And his ego has proved to hinder the potential of a group otherwise not interfered with by restraining actions that would be helpful to growth otherwise. A civilization will have a harmed development if it is to be patriarchal because his self-pride and concupiscence for power will disintegrate all individuality in all levels of castes of a society.

(Not actually how I feel, but it sounds good, doesn't it?)