Seven's Deadly Sin

by Raincrystal 

In his editorial, B.L. Alien writes:

<< Shinra, while not being the true villians, are whom I believe to be the true evil. They wanted to destroy the Planet that had given them life for one purpose: money. The way economy works is that money is only as valuable as the people who use it. Had Shinra succeeded in destroying the world, the people would slowly die, and their money would be useless. Therefore, Shinra must have been working under the influence of pure evil - the sense of accomplishment caused by destruction. >>

While I agree with B.L.'s basic statement that Shinra was the true evil in FF7, I disagree with the reasoning he (she?) uses. Shinra's goal was not just to destroy. I don't think they were acting like a bunch of twisted maniacs who just wanted to blow stuff up to be powerful.

B.L. is right about the economy-- money will be of no use to Shinra if all the people die. However, if Sephiroth had not summoned Meteor and Aeris had not called Holy, how long would it have been before the planet died? "The planet's dyin', Cloud," Barret informs us near the beginning of the game. "Slowly but surely it's dying." Underline "slowly." In time, yes, the planet will die. But I seriously doubt the situation was so bad that they expected it to happen in their own generation. The world of FFVII is a bleak one, with few forests and large deserts; but it isn't dead yet, not by any means.

Certainly, people like Barret who have little children to protect worry about the future. In fact, anyone with the fundamentals of human caring should be concerned. But the Shinra executives are not worried about future generations; they just want to grab all the money they can for themselves. Except for President Shinra and Rufus, how many of the executives do you think have children? Do you think Rufus is likely to start a family? They aren't the nurturing sort. They don't care about making the world safe for their children; they care about themselves.

Shinra's sin was not the wish for destruction, but the basic deadly sin of greed. What they are doing is selling the future for the sake of getting money today.