Gluttony kills. It doesn't mean eating a little too much. It means consuming resources wastefully. Gluttony butchers people all across the globe. America takes in so much food, while producing so much, and so much of it ends up in the trash. Also, consider how often some small staple crop gets "found" by a capitalist, and now the population dependent upon it has to fight tooth and nail to get it with the wealthiest of the world. Amaranth and quinoa were dirt cheap, then pricey, and now get exported to super markets at the cost of the people who needed it. Look in the dumpster of any restaurant in the US, see the tons of food they can't stand the thought of someone else eating. Also, look at the brutal practices of the farming industry, how animals are treated, how meat packers are treated, how harvesters are treated. Look at the hog diets, cannibal sandwiches and all meat diets. You think those people know hunger? This is all a game to them. They'll burn through all the world's food to eat what they want.
Vanity kills. You see the diets, the insane workout regimens, the hundreds of dollars of products people use to look young? You ever seen a bully, so full of their appearance, mock someone to the point of self harm? Even death? People who spend their whole life in front of the mirror are not healthy happy people, and they will not hold your best interests at heart. If you've ever read about royals bathing in the blood of virgins, and heard about how badly treated animals are in cosmetics, you know vanity is deadly. Caring about looking nice is fine, but the minute you put it up over other people's lives on your priority list that's a sin.
Every single one of the seven deadly sins is toxic, and they are the causes of every evil act. Every one comes from some fine impulse, needed to stay alive, taken to an extreme and being dangerous.
Those are extremely vague interpretations of them, and they're not actually root causes of suffering. Almost all of the examples you've given are actually suffering caused by capitalism and greed, which corrupted and warped other desires. Yes, these behaviors taken to an extreme are unhealthy, but that extreme is not inherent to or even remotely a normal aspect of those desires. This is not a world where people who desire to constantly find new tastes have to contribute to the waste of entire countries to do so, or a world where people who want to look good or feel important have to do so at the expense of everyone else. You even conceded this point in your own comment! The dangerous, horrible aspects of these are almost all tied together with and intrinsic to culture, economy, wealth, historical events, and many other factors. To reduce these massive systemic issues to personality flaws or 'sins' is a dangerously simplistic view of morality and inherently incompatible with a materialistic and socialist view of humanity.
We could argue for hours and hours over this, but the truth is that none of the things you've listed are the socially accepted definitions of what constitute the Deadly Sins. People do not think of our insane beauty standards when they think of vanity, they think of 'welfare queens' and women who get breast implants. They do not think of our horrible waste of food and valuable products when they think of gluttony, they think of a fat kid who eats too much at dinner. They do not think of the constant rat race and capitalistic grind to be 'on top' as Envy- They think of those who wish to have a fair share of our society's resources. They do not think of rapists and the absolutely monstrous capitalists who use their power to get off on hurting others as Lust- They think that's just a woman who sleeps with too many men. They do not think of the landlords who do nothing and abuse their tenants as Sloth- That's the tenants themselves, who refuse to do the Work. And, most damning, they do not think of our systemic hoarding and conditioned greed as capital-G Greed- They think that WE'RE the greedy ones. We, the people who want everyone to have what they need, yes, they think we're the greedy ones. McCarthyism was a wild ride.
This is the issue with the Deadly Sins as a tool for making moral judgements- They claim that the evil, horrible behaviors that are displayed nearly daily are some sort of personal crime, a sin against God. But these horrible behaviors are not inherent human behavior at all, and are only aesthetically related to their 'healthy' variation. And when you reduce it to personal crime, subjective view of what it entails becomes much more important. And so the reactionary forces can warp and change the definition of evil at will.
We, as communists, cannot think in terms of personal morality. And so I suggest we discard the Deadly Sins entirely from our vocabulary, and instead use the terminology and toolset that has been available for us from the beginning- Dialetical Materialism, and a holistic view of society. You can continue to use the terminology of the Deadly Sins to describe systemic issues, but know that anyone trying to depict them in media will not be saying the same thing as you, and anyone listening will not be hearing the same thing you're trying to say. Of course, using alternative definitions of the Sins as a rhetorical tool when talking with those who believe in them is a valid tactic! And believing in them yourself, is, most likely, fine, but from a wide view we still have to consider the systemic forces and not just the flaws of a select few.
Gluttony kills. It doesn't mean eating a little too much. It means consuming resources wastefully. Gluttony butchers people all across the globe. America takes in so much food, while producing so much, and so much of it ends up in the trash. Also, consider how often some small staple crop gets "found" by a capitalist, and now the population dependent upon it has to fight tooth and nail to get it with the wealthiest of the world. Amaranth and quinoa were dirt cheap, then pricey, and now get exported to super markets at the cost of the people who needed it. Look in the dumpster of any restaurant in the US, see the tons of food they can't stand the thought of someone else eating. Also, look at the brutal practices of the farming industry, how animals are treated, how meat packers are treated, how harvesters are treated. Look at the hog diets, cannibal sandwiches and all meat diets. You think those people know hunger? This is all a game to them. They'll burn through all the world's food to eat what they want.
Vanity kills. You see the diets, the insane workout regimens, the hundreds of dollars of products people use to look young? You ever seen a bully, so full of their appearance, mock someone to the point of self harm? Even death? People who spend their whole life in front of the mirror are not healthy happy people, and they will not hold your best interests at heart. If you've ever read about royals bathing in the blood of virgins, and heard about how badly treated animals are in cosmetics, you know vanity is deadly. Caring about looking nice is fine, but the minute you put it up over other people's lives on your priority list that's a sin.
Every single one of the seven deadly sins is toxic, and they are the causes of every evil act. Every one comes from some fine impulse, needed to stay alive, taken to an extreme and being dangerous.
Those are extremely vague interpretations of them, and they're not actually root causes of suffering. Almost all of the examples you've given are actually suffering caused by capitalism and greed, which corrupted and warped other desires. Yes, these behaviors taken to an extreme are unhealthy, but that extreme is not inherent to or even remotely a normal aspect of those desires. This is not a world where people who desire to constantly find new tastes have to contribute to the waste of entire countries to do so, or a world where people who want to look good or feel important have to do so at the expense of everyone else. You even conceded this point in your own comment! The dangerous, horrible aspects of these are almost all tied together with and intrinsic to culture, economy, wealth, historical events, and many other factors. To reduce these massive systemic issues to personality flaws or 'sins' is a dangerously simplistic view of morality and inherently incompatible with a materialistic and socialist view of humanity.
We could argue for hours and hours over this, but the truth is that none of the things you've listed are the socially accepted definitions of what constitute the Deadly Sins. People do not think of our insane beauty standards when they think of vanity, they think of 'welfare queens' and women who get breast implants. They do not think of our horrible waste of food and valuable products when they think of gluttony, they think of a fat kid who eats too much at dinner. They do not think of the constant rat race and capitalistic grind to be 'on top' as Envy- They think of those who wish to have a fair share of our society's resources. They do not think of rapists and the absolutely monstrous capitalists who use their power to get off on hurting others as Lust- They think that's just a woman who sleeps with too many men. They do not think of the landlords who do nothing and abuse their tenants as Sloth- That's the tenants themselves, who refuse to do the Work. And, most damning, they do not think of our systemic hoarding and conditioned greed as capital-G Greed- They think that WE'RE the greedy ones. We, the people who want everyone to have what they need, yes, they think we're the greedy ones. McCarthyism was a wild ride.
This is the issue with the Deadly Sins as a tool for making moral judgements- They claim that the evil, horrible behaviors that are displayed nearly daily are some sort of personal crime, a sin against God. But these horrible behaviors are not inherent human behavior at all, and are only aesthetically related to their 'healthy' variation. And when you reduce it to personal crime, subjective view of what it entails becomes much more important. And so the reactionary forces can warp and change the definition of evil at will.
We, as communists, cannot think in terms of personal morality. And so I suggest we discard the Deadly Sins entirely from our vocabulary, and instead use the terminology and toolset that has been available for us from the beginning- Dialetical Materialism, and a holistic view of society. You can continue to use the terminology of the Deadly Sins to describe systemic issues, but know that anyone trying to depict them in media will not be saying the same thing as you, and anyone listening will not be hearing the same thing you're trying to say. Of course, using alternative definitions of the Sins as a rhetorical tool when talking with those who believe in them is a valid tactic! And believing in them yourself, is, most likely, fine, but from a wide view we still have to consider the systemic forces and not just the flaws of a select few.
tl;dr personal fault is bullshit