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ArchivesRe: OT: Salve to Phyllis cont'd & Opinion Poll for All on "Evil"
in reply to a message by Nanaea
It's important to differentiate between the *need* for money and the *love* of money, i.e., greed.
As I often tell my hordes of admiring minions, we ain't there because we love to build forktrucks, we're basically there to provide for our families, and what we're doing is a legit means to that end.
Ambition and a desire for success are about more than money, fortunately. But all too often we've seen wars fought over the desire for economic gain, and decisions in business motivated entirely to increase the personal bottom line, far beyond what's needed to live comfortably or even to prosper.
In the latter case, the result is otherwise-sound companies ruined by merger or takeover, careers and lives turned out to pasture to maximize someone's stock return, and the shift of jobs overseas to further line someone's pockets. If that's not evil, I don't know what is. Maybe not the root of ALL evil, but bad enough.
As I often tell my hordes of admiring minions, we ain't there because we love to build forktrucks, we're basically there to provide for our families, and what we're doing is a legit means to that end.
Ambition and a desire for success are about more than money, fortunately. But all too often we've seen wars fought over the desire for economic gain, and decisions in business motivated entirely to increase the personal bottom line, far beyond what's needed to live comfortably or even to prosper.
In the latter case, the result is otherwise-sound companies ruined by merger or takeover, careers and lives turned out to pasture to maximize someone's stock return, and the shift of jobs overseas to further line someone's pockets. If that's not evil, I don't know what is. Maybe not the root of ALL evil, but bad enough.
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Replies
Yes, you're absolutely right on that account. "Maybe not the root of ALL evil, but bad enough."
Okay, I'll tell you now how I would have answered my own question. While "ignorance" is way up there in my estimation of what truly encompasses the root of all evil, there is something else which is far more insidious...
And that is: Excess.
"Excess" is the genuine root of all evil. Excess in love, excess in ambition, excess in religion, excess even in ignorance.
When human beings neglect to maintain a sane balance in their lives, in their desires, in their ethics, in their *everything*, the evil of excess is what results.
*Anything* can lead to genuine evil, when taken to excess.
-- Nanaea
Okay, I'll tell you now how I would have answered my own question. While "ignorance" is way up there in my estimation of what truly encompasses the root of all evil, there is something else which is far more insidious...
And that is: Excess.
"Excess" is the genuine root of all evil. Excess in love, excess in ambition, excess in religion, excess even in ignorance.
When human beings neglect to maintain a sane balance in their lives, in their desires, in their ethics, in their *everything*, the evil of excess is what results.
*Anything* can lead to genuine evil, when taken to excess.
-- Nanaea
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