pleonexia

photo: Don McCullough. Foundation for nuclear power plant once planned for Bodega Bay.

This passage is from Caterpillage by Henry Berger, and seems apropos for a fermenting administration that threatens to destroy our fragile coast in the search for oil and more.

“Pleonexia means not only ‘having more’ (a literal translation) but wanting to have more – wanting to be bigger, better, superior. It means never having enough because you aspire to total and immortal self-sufficiency, even if that involves draining the rest of the world of power, wealth, pleasure, and being. But there’s also a more defensive side to pleonexia in a society whose members are aware of competing with each other: pleonexia involves wanting to take from another before another takes from you.

… The shadow of pleonexia or vanitas that falls across the embarrassment of riches … has the form of an enormous, incessantly munching caterpillar.”