We are, as a country, caught in a stranglehold by those whose wealth makes it hard for us to understand why they should keep demanding more. Robert Reich addressing the need to break up Big Banks, Lawmaker outrage at AIG potentially joining a lawsuit again the US, Joseph Stiglitz looking at climate change and poverty, Bill Moyers addressing the Gun Lobby's Firepower are just the most recent attempts to address the issue of Insatiable Greed.

Stuck between moral outrage and intellectual argument we have, to date, been unable to effectively challenge the scourge of economic violence that continually threatens our country's ability to move forward with just equity for all.

A neuro-biological argument might clarify what, exactly, is going on - in a way that avoids blame and criticism. Taking the discussion to the level of Biological Science may seem far-flung, but Science is where the rubber meets the road in understanding human behavior. The data I present is clear and statistically solid; the argument makes sense and passes the "So What?" test. Anyone with the patience to listen can understand. The neuro-biological argument addresses the problem of Insatiable Greed with compassion; the shift in dialogue, in itself, offers a genuine solution to the problem.

In brief, we are talking about a mental illness: a profound alienation from Life associated with such terrible suffering that people afflicted are driven to do whatever it takes to protect themselves from that suffering.

I practiced neuro-psychiatry for 18 years with the goal of learning to understand human suffering. The timing or my education was fortuitous: our knowledge of neuro-receptors was at its height just prior to the Pharmaceutical Industry's Take-Over of the scientific data. Most importantly, I learned about human suffering from listening to my Patients' Stories. Over two thirds had been badly damaged by one of three specific childhood experiences. A website, bornforjoy.com (referring to all of us), describes my work in both lay and scientific terms.

Two of those damaging childhood experiences would have precluded survival to adulthood in primitive cultures. Both are consequences, historically, of the Insatiable Greed at the root of the conquest, rape, and pillage that has driven "Civilization" forward. Americans are, perhaps, lucky in that most of us have experienced violence as only economic violence. Native Americans, Black Americans, American children, and most of our forebears knew/know of a more immediate, painful violence. The third profoundly damaging childhood experience, profound childhood neglect, can be found at the root of all human violence.

The profound alienation that drives Insatiable Greed is a cognitive disorder of that neurocircuitry which defines our humanity. The human newborn has the same brain capacity at birth as our nearest pre-human ancestors, Homo erectus; by the age of 3, our brain is the size of the Homo erectus adult. Homo sapiens is the only species with 2 generations of caretakers. During the 1.6 million years that separate us from our Homo erectus forebears, parents and grandparents learned to teach children to be human. Our intellectual capacity evolved hand in hand with the evolution of human families and of human culture.

Our long childhood defines us as a species. We are the only species intellectually capable (and intellectually designed) to face threat with calm confidence. That calm confidence, however, demands that someone teach us patience and trust in a higher Goodness than ourselves. The data is solid: people suffering the profound alienation that drives insatiable greed never had anyone help them learn what it means to be human.

Insatiable Greed results when children (rich or poor) are emotionally abandoned - left to raise themselves guided only by their own (reptilian) fight-or-flight response to perceived threat. The terrible insecurity of feeling alone in the world, with only one's wits and false courage, drives the economic violence of those who will never have enough. What they have learned from Life that it's a Game to be played without respect for anything but winning an immediate sense of security.

Karl Rove's childhood "Story," which can be read in his New Yorker Profile, compels our compassion. That said the demands, the threats, and even the violence of those with Insatiable Greed require the answer a loving parent gives a demanding child. That answer is a firm, "No," spoken without anger and with understanding. Only on hearing, "No," do we turn inward to find real security - the security of our human capacity to serve a Greater Goodness than ourselves.

Saying, "No," to a bully requires real courage. It is the right thing to do.