Why Too Much Can Leave You With Nothing

Brazil’s 2–3 loss to Japan in a friendly match in Tokyo last October shocked football fans everywhere. Japan has been improving lately, sure—but Brazil is a five-time World Cup champion. The defeat only deepened the slump that has followed the Samba squad since their humiliating loss to Germany on home soil in the 2014 World Cup final.

Fans were quick to link Brazil’s decline to the behavior of its football stars, who are known for partying hard whenever they hit peak performance. Neymar Jr., who made the list of the world’s top 10 richest athletes while still a teenager, was reported to have attended around 120 parties during his years in Europe with Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain. On top of that, he has a weakness for junk food—something no serious athlete should be touching.

And long before Neymar, there was Romario. The Brazilian superstar of the ’90s was also a party addict, especially after Brazil’s 1994 World Cup victory. Romario was the star of the tournament and won the Golden Ball as the best player. The euphoria carried him away—he failed to return to Barcelona, his club at the time, on schedule and skipped training. Johan Cruyff, the coach then, was furious and promptly sold him back to a Brazilian club (Flamengo) just months after his World Cup glory.

Exploring Abundance Without Limits

Besides being home to some of the best footballers on the planet, Brazil is also known for the Amazon rainforest—named the lungs of the Earth and responsible for producing 20% of the planet’s clean oxygen. The Amazon is unmatched in biodiversity, much of which still hasn’t been identified. The Amazon River, the longest in the world, sustains countless communities along its banks.

Even with its UNESCO World Heritage status, the Amazon hasn’t been immune to the ambitions of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. His administration has pushed to initiate oil exploration around the Amazon region. Although the government insists the drilling will occur outside the forest and avoid conservation zones, the decision stunned many. 

Illustration: pexels.com

The shock grew when the government openly stated that the exploration is meant to tap into the country’s natural wealth to generate revenue—revenue they say is needed to fund Brazil’s transition to green energy.

While Lula’s statement appears environmentally conscious, Indigenous communities of the Amazon have been protesting the plan from 2024 until now. These are people whose ancestors have lived in the Amazon for generations, protecting the world’s largest rainforest using wisdom passed down through time. UNESCO’s acknowledgment of the forest’s “sacredness” is, in a way, recognition of their work.

Contrast this with the United States. Even though President Donald Trump loudly dismissed climate change and green energy narratives as a scam, Native American communities have fared relatively better than Indigenous Amazonians.

For example, in June 2025, the U.S. government acknowledged that it had illegally sold Potawatomi tribal conservation land in the 1800s. After two centuries under federal control, the land was finally returned to the tribe’s current generation.

Preventing The Wealth From Vanishing Without a Trace

As of April 2025, Brazil’s state-owned oil giant Petrobras still leads global oil production, surpassing countries like the neighboring United States. So the obvious question is: where did all the money go? How is it that the trillions generated haven’t been enough to support Lula’s green energy transition?

It’s a fair question—especially when Lula claims that drilling near the Amazon is simply to boost national revenue.

Abundance can disappear without a trace if it isn’t managed properly. It’s not unlike Neymar Jr. and Romario, who squandered their talent for short bursts of pleasure. Compare that with the Indigenous communities of the Amazon who, for decades, have chosen to live far from the noise of modern life so they can protect the forest.

Happiness can turn into samsara when it blinds a person—or a nation—from caring for what their ancestors left behind. Abundance can make us lose our grounding, tempting us to chase pleasure for just a little longer. But when the source of that happiness dries up, panic sets in—and people do anything to get it back as fast as possible. (dswas)