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 49 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

If you can't enforce the law then it is nothing more than empty words.

I suppose that the easy thing to say about this statement is that it should need no further explanation. It seems (at least to me) to be complete without adding to it. That does not mean that there are not other principles that cannot be obtained from it nor that there are not questions that must be asked if this principle is true. The first of those questions is this: When has the law become so complex that it is impossible to know or enforce?

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 36 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

All men are of equal moral value. But all men do not have equal talents. They definitely do not have equal abilities either. Therefore to expect all men to have or acquire the same amount of goods is foolish.
I will also add that not all men will apply themselves to the development of their skills with as much vigor as other men and that also makes a difference in the amount of goods a man can or will acquire. Life is not fair. In other words no matter how much we want it to be so, different people behave differently. If you don’t believe this consider identical twins. Even between two people so nearly alike, there is a difference in temperament and interests.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 34 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

‘Social justice’ is the shibboleth used by those who envy achievers especially those achievers who have become rich. When someone says that they want ‘social justice’ they are looking for ways to hide their own envy and greed.
Justice is done when each person is able to direct his life as he wishes so long as he is not harming someone else. It is not justice at all to look at another person’s goods (or body) and say that if you can convince the government to give it to you that such is your right!

© 2011 Vic Jones