Gluttony,
lust, sloth, greed, anger, envy, and pride.
In
premodern western culture, the seven deadly sins were
widely regarded as violations of divine law. Today market
capitalism has picked up on Christianity's psychic
scourges. The deadly sins are acceptable, even
praiseworthy, states of mind; virtues rather than vices.
Gluttony and lust fuel billion-dollar industries. Greed
drives the quest for profit at any cost. Envy is a mainstay
of the fashion industry and marketing as a whole. The
revenge fantasies of anger are filtered through
professional sports, video games and army recruitment
advertisements. Pride fuels the education and management
bandwagon of high self-esteem. Even sloth, in its original
sense as a torpor of the soul, has found a new, profitable
form as clinical depression.
The age-old deadly sins have been redirected as states of
mind conducive to consumption. Sin has been spun. Hence,
what I call “The Deadly Spins.”
- Geoff Olson
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The
Deadly Spins first
appeared in The
Yukon News, and
was substantially revised and enlarged for
Common
Ground magazine.
Author Geoff Olson is a Vancouver-based writer and
political cartoonist.
