On Greed and Fear

I say, greed (“want”) and fear (“don’t want”) are two fundamental drivers of action among lifeforms.

These terms are usually associated with financial markets. Greed is during bubble peaks, fear is during panics. But everyone wants something or doesn’t want something else. In any transaction, demands should meet, and supply needs to be there too.

Simplest bacteria that can move display the same. Using chemotaxis, they propel themselves with a motor towards what they need, and away what they don’t. Plants move to the light, away from shade, but also away from the harshest rays. Animals go towards what they want and avoid what is harmful or causes fear, and humans do the same.

Humans are known for more complex emotions. Happiness is a display of what you want, love is about what you want. Anger is a reflection of what you don’t want and should go away. Fear is when you don’t want something, but it might happen anyway and it causes psychological pressures, pushing to action. Even such complicated concepts as Portuguese saudade, even they reflect what we don’t want: losing the old days, or, if we never experienced them, a want for them to be back.