Page 43 - X Commandementsfor Unbelievers

The Roots

Before a hand steals,

before a mouth lies, before a lover betrays —

a thought awakens: “why not me?”
That quiet spark of envy becomes the root of

wrongful deeds.

It wears the masks of

justice, equality, equity, fairness and self-fulfillment,
yet its breath is resentment,

not creation.

Covetousness whispers that the world

owes you balance,
that someone else’s joy was stolen from your share.

It flatters weakness, poisons gratitude,

and breeds the cleverest illusion of all — the

“self-esteem hoax”:
the worship of one’s wounded pride as a virtue.

From this root, wrong actions rise —

to steal, to lie, to betray, to destroy —
each disguised as fairness or revenge,

yet each corroding the moral bond bet

ween human and human.

The sungpoem that follows unveils this first impulse

the envy that hides beneath noble words,

where morals collapse not from cruelty,

but from desire to possess what was never
ours to claim.

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