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Re: [ProgSoc] Evil is good



On Nov 15, 2007 2:03 PM, Myles Byrne <myles@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 11/15/07, John Elliot <jj5@xxxxxxx> wrote:

I didn't watch the video but I agree with this statement:

> Hint: greed isn't good.

I think the people who started the "greed is good" thing thought greed
is synonymous with selfishness or self-interest. They probably liked
the controversial and soundbyte qualities of the statement and
foolishly overlooked the definition of the word.

My understanding of the word is that greed means acquiring something
for the purpose of depriving others from it. That can never be a good
thing.

That seems to place an awful lot of importance on the intent of the person with greed (i.e. the intent to acquire in order to deprive others). Looking around at the world I would have thought that greed could be better defined as acquiring something without thought to limits or the consequences of the process of acquisition. The distinction is that this kind of greed is blind and is undertaken without consideration for the welfare of others or the environment in which the person exists. I believe it is because the person is not aware of the fact that they are in fact impacting negatively on the world around them. The up side is that the person MAY have a conscience and MAY be able to be educated whereas the type of greed you're describing Myles *IS* evil in a manner as it is the result of a conscious decision by someone to deprive others of something for the purposes of personal gain... Then again ecologically it could be argued that we are in fact all competing with each other for limited resources and that this is in fact survivalist behaviour, and since when is it unethical to want to survive? I'm giving myself an ethical headache...

-Andi.