Lesson 59 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Since jealousy and greed are related closely, jealousy must obviously be a source or root of evil.

I am not so much interested in defining evil as identifying the cause of evil, these I have boiled down to greed, envy and jealousy. Indeed I believe that envy and jealousy are actually aspects of greed. Behind any behavior that could possibly be considered evil is the root of greed and its expression as naked greed, or greed disguised as envy or jealousy.

Sometimes of course greed is difficult to identify, for example when many people (including BHO in my humble opinion) start to talk about giving to the poor they rarely intend that they should give to the poor but are somewhat more like Judas Iscariot who had his hand in the money bag of Jesus. I say that even if they may not be stealing money for their own enrichment, for when they use the power of the government to take money from one person to give to another in order to appear to be generous they at minimum steal the accolade that would go with such a gift if they had not stepped between the ‘donor’ and the ‘recipient.’

However since BHO is running the money through the government chances are that at more than one level there are people who are diverting some of it to their own enrichment. This is on top of the fact that government ‘charity’ rarely does anything other than to increase the dependency of its recipient. While the increasing control this gives stokes the appetite of the government for ever greater power (which is one objective of some strains of greed) over all aspects of life.

© 2012 Vic Jones

Lesson 58 from The Hard knocks School of Life

Evil seems to me to be made up of three basic behaviors: greed, envy and lying.

Greed may be (I believe is) the underlying disease for the behavior for which envy is the motivation, and most of the time greed is also the motivation for lying.

The only motivation I have ever seen for lying other than greed is fear. This then brings up the question of whether or not fear motivated lying is as evil as greed motivated lying. Another issue that muddies the all lying is evil is the fact that at times lying can be very necessary to stop someone from carrying out an evil act. An example of this is those people who hid Jews from Hitler’s SS during world war two. These people obviously lied and did good. Thus lying became not only a necessary evil at that time but became an actual active good.

© 2012 Vic Jones

Lesson 57 from the Hard Knocks School of Life

Socialism (or communism) seems to me to be systems of government based on greed and fueled by envy.

Communism and its child/sibling socialism are philosophies that are often hard to discuss rationally because people get heavily emotionally involved in these belief systems. Perhaps the reason for this is that so many people have invested their ‘treasure’ both in worldly goods and belief in these ideas and if anyone refutes these ideas they are devaluing the treasure that has been invested in them.

Yet when one takes the time to examine the idea that everyone should have the same stuff, (goods and services) without all of the emotional baggage, it becomes very evident that communism is childish or infantile at best and evil at worst. The reason for this is that not everyone wants, or needs, or deserves the same things in life. For very young children it may only seem fair that Johnny doesn’t have a cookie when Timmy doesn’t have a cookie. But adults can easily understand that if John works every day he has the goods and services he earns while if Tim refuses (not cannot) to work then he should likewise have what he has earned which is poverty.

© 2012 Vic Jones

Lesson 56 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Men only dare greatly if they expect great rewards. The government that seeks to limit the size of reward that a man may hope for or expect is foolish at best and tyrannical at worst.

Some say that greed, or need is the mother of invention and I would have to say that the first is closest to the truth. That is because no matter how great the need of a people group is the only reason something new is attempted (which is the essence of invention) is if the person who is making the attempt believes he will reap some reward that he feels is adequate to his effort.

The only difficulty I have is in calling the self-interest that inspires invention greed. This is because I do not believe that wanting a better life in and of itself is a manifestation of greed. It seems to me that greed is when you try to prevent other people from having a better life. Or when you desire something and steal it rather than work for it.

The characterization of profit as evil is one of the many ways in which the lazy and greedy rulers of a society work to make it easier for them to steal from those who work and produce the good things they desire but do not wish to soil their hands with the production of.

© 2012 Vic Jones

Lesson 55 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Evil breeds hate. Then hatred breeds violence.

Hatred sets men one against another. The father of evil (if you believe the Bible) is Satan; the one thing Satan wants more than anything else is for men to hate one another. The fact that men hating one another breeds violence and causes men to destroy one another means that we do Satan’s work for him.

Perhaps you do not believe in Satan or in objective evil. If you insist on disbelieving in Satan that is fine; but not believing that we can define evil as one man stirring hatred for another for any reason seems to be lacking in understanding. For if we hate one another we can never have peace.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 54 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built. Abraham Lincoln

Let us paraphrase this for the modern era: Let not the poor man steal (whether with his own hand or by government action) from the rich but rather let him learn to become rich and build his own wealth thereby assuring that his wealth will be safe from the greed of other men.

Greed is without a doubt at the heart of wishing to have what you desire without work. But greed always leads to everyone having less goods and less security.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 51 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Self interest is not evil. Taking away people's incentive to win is evil!

Self interest is often conflated to be greed which is then seen as evil. I find no difficulty in identifying greed as evil. What I do find difficult is to separate honest and reasonable self interest that is survival oriented for both the individual and society from greed which is not survival oriented.

Perhaps the best way to define greed is as a hunger that cannot be sated and that grows greater the more it is fed. In extreme cases this sort of hunger destroys not only the individual but the society of which he is a part.

Taking away a person’s incentive to win  is evil because this is an abrogation of his self interest which as I noted above is good not only for himself but for everyone around him.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 50 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Jealousy and greed are interrelated; if I am jealous of my neighbor's car I am actually practicing covetousness which is a form of greed. If I am jealous of my wife or husband it is because I think of them as possessions rather than as people.

Some people think that self-interest is the same as greed I do not think that self-interest is the same as greed nor is it (self-interest) evil. Yet because it puts your welfare above other people’s welfare it is easy to mistake self-interest as greed.

Greed (and I’ll define it more in a later lesson) is insisting that you should be the only person to have possessions. It (greed) is not wanting more possessions than you currently have unless by having more things you seek to deny possessions to your neighbor.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 48 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

The purpose of religion is the moral education of a society.

Some people may ask if moral education is necessary. Others may insist that we are unable to truly define what is moral. Whether or not a person believes that moral education is necessary children are consistently being morally educated. They may be receiving the message that if they want something that if they can take it that is a reasonable behavior or they may be receiving the message that they must respect other people in both their persons and their property.

I think though that one of the worst things I’m seeing today is the advancement of the idea that it is moral for a crowd to do things that it would be immoral for a person to do. This is a very dangerous idea. In fact a quick look at the French revolution will give a person chills when the behavior of the ‘masses’ is examined.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 47 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

You have heard the teaching that if your neighbor slaps your cheek you should offer him the other one. Some people have interpreted to mean that you should accept violence without recourse. This is untrue. If your neighbor balls up his fist and punches your nose you are well advised to return the favor immediately.

You say to me that returning violence for violence just escalates violence. I say that the appearance of weakness encourages violence. Most times it is possible to accept an insult (though to some people even accepting an insult can will be viewed as weakness) without injury; however when insult escalates to assault it is generally no longer wise to accept it.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 45 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

The only way that everyone can (or will) have the same amount of goods and services is if no one has any goods or services.

Of course even in the most aggressively socialistic or communistic countries it is evident that not everyone has the same things or the same services rendered to them. For example consider North Korea. Most of the population of North Korea lives in abject poverty while the ruler of the country (an absolute dictator) lives in luxury that would embarrass anyone with a sense of morality. The same can be seen in Cuba where the Castro brothers have lived in luxury while their people starved. Thus when anyone puts forth the idea that fairness consists of everyone having the same amount of goods and services it is well to ask whether he is willing to divest himself of his goods so that he can live up to his rhetoric.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 44 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Lies are like acid corroding or corrupting any society that permits them to permeate its fabric.

What more needs to be said about this? Yet there seem to be some people who would rather hear a pleasant sounding lie for the moment than to hear an unpleasant truth. A pleasant lie for example is that when everyone has the same amount of stuff that society is fair. This is a most childish belief that leads at the very least to mass misery. We may have equal value to God but we do not have equal talents and it is certain that we have not all applied our talents with equal vigor to gaining stuff. Therefore it is actually unfair to assume that everyone having the same stuff is fairness!

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 43 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

The truth must be defended; that includes debunking lies whenever you hear them!

It may seem oxymoronic that allowing a lie to stand can cause much evil but since lies are one of the basic units of evil every person who aspires to goodness must work continually to expose any lies they discover. Thus anyone who says that the truth can stand without being defended is expressing at the very least moral incompetence. However it is my contention such a person is very likely is asking that whatever lies he has told not be exposed.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 38 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

No tool is good or evil. Things are morally neutral, the uses they are put to may be good or evil but the uses do not define the tools.
It may be difficult for some people to understand that things are morally neutral although I cannot understand why anyone would find this concept difficult. After all things (except animals [and I’ll discuss that in another place]) are only moved by people. People are aware of what is (or should be aware) evil. That is the deliberate destruction of other people.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 35 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Some people will try to tell you that making a profit is evil; this is not true. What is evil is trying to take a man’s labor without compensating him. Taking labor or goods without compensation is what people who say making a profit is evil are trying to do.
In some ways this lesson is a reiteration of lesson 34. But it is well to remember that those who would steal by making you ashamed of making a profit will use most any method of beating you down so that they don’t get their heads handed to them when they break the laws of God about theft.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 32 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

A greedy man wants to be the only one making a profit.
Making a profit is not evil; indeed it (making a profit) is necessary to continued living. There are those who would say otherwise of course; but most of them can actually be counted as among the greedy. They want to be able to take the profit from those who invest their time and ingenuity to gain goods or make new ideas a reality.

It seems to me that often the most greedy person is the one who tries to convince the doers of society that their profits on their efforts are evil.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Struggling

I’m still struggling with the concept that there is anything that is necessary and at the same time evil. My conclusion is yes there is and the best example I can come up with is still a government or government generically.
I’m sure you are asking how this can be possible. In order to understand that government is evil and yet necessary you have to accept the position that mankind is evil. That in general and generically we all tend toward doing things that are evil. Once you accept that and accept that government (which is made up of people) is evil as well but necessary to curtail the tendency of people to be evil then you can begin to accept that government is a necessary evil.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 30 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. -- Lord Acton.

I’ve been trying to come up with something to add to this and all I can think to say is that it means that the government is no more trust worthy than is Reynolds Tobacco, or Google, or Microsoft for that matter. Each of these organizations has worked to acquire money which translates into power. What is especially worry some though is when a large corporation like Walmart starts cooperating with the government…

© 2011 Vic Jones.

The Viper

The Viper


A foolish young miss,

Nurtured a venomous viper,

At her breast,

When one day it did bite,

She exclaimed before she expired,

Why have you treated me so,

Did I not tenderly nourish you,

And protect you,

Indeed did I not hide you in my bosom,

All that is true said the viper,

But to my nature I too must be true,

And away he did slither,

To entice another foolish miss or mister!

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 29 from: The Hard Knocks School of Life

The good man knows that all men are capable of evil and guards himself against evil in his thinking. The evil man doesn’t believe in evil and therefore lays himself open to commit all sorts of evil.

Who have been the monsters of the last century? Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, et al; I’m sure most people would agree on these men. What is the common thread that connects them all?

Is it not that they were all convinced that they were morally superior to all other people. Or that they rejected current common morality and definitions of evil?

All I know is this if I hear that a person believes he can define morality or evil without an outside guide I fear their rise to power.

© 2011 Vic Jones