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

Good Intentions

Good Intentions

Good intentions put no food on the table

Nor do they put money in the bank

Good intentions do no work

And good intentions save no lives

More often than not

Though many won’t admit

Good intentions lead to bad ends!

© 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 53 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Human nature is universal, people are individual.

Self interest is a matter of human nature. In every society no matter how it is organized people will generally seek their own interests over everyone else. This is one of the generalities of human nature.

People are individual (this is also a generality of human nature) in that everyone will express some form of individuality even in the most conformist culture. Also even though everyone can be expected to seek his own interest it is never wise to expect that any one person will seek his own interest even when it may seem that he has an obvious interest.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 52 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Today’s lesson is a quote from Ayn Rand the author of Atlas Shrugged. “One of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing controls that tie a given industry hand and foot, making it unable to solve its problems, then declaring that freedom has failed and stronger controls are necessary.” —Ayn Rand, 1975

My first question on seeing this quote is: What is a Statist? A Statist is a person who invests the state (government) with the ability to answer all of life’s questions and needs. A person who believes this way is worshiping a false god of course but since the state has become their god you cannot do much to persuade them away from investing all of their effort into it.

In the modern era it is wise for us to remember that the statist will do his (her) best to destroy anyone who even begins to shake their faith.

© 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 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 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 46 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

There is no time when you are not making a choice. You may choose to stay where you are or you may chose to move from where you are. The most important thing to remember is that in either case you're making a choice.

Being able to understand this principle can help you to recognize when you have made a choice. This is because many times we fail to recognize that attempting to not make a choice is impossible because the only time you are not making a choice is when you are dead.

© 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 42 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

If you are doing something and you are not getting the results you expected don’t continue doing what you are doing. Stop and examine what is happening and rethink your strategy, you may need to change what you are doing.

Another way of stating this is that to do the same thing the same way and expect a different result is insanity. There is little doubt that failure should lead to reexamination of what a person is doing. Therefore anything that prevents people from reexamining their behavior in the face of failure is doing them a grave disservice.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 41 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

If you seek peace through weakness you will have peace; you will also most likely be a slave! It may seem to be a contradiction that you will live a more peaceful life if you are willing to work and fight for what you have than if when threatened with violence you give whatever is demanded by the person or group issuing the threat but it is true.

Another way to express this is that bullies only pick on those they perceive as weak.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 40 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything. This may seem to be an over simplistic statement but as with a great many bits of wisdom the fact of its shortness and simplicity is what gives it great impact.

For example how many people believe a great many ideas without ever learning to think about those ideas. Atheists don’t believe in any god but are unwilling to look at the universe and see the necessity that such a being exists. They claim the fact that there are many different beliefs as to what a god would represent this means that there must be no real god or even anything that is objectively true though every society minimally condemns murder.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 39 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Emotion rules reason. This is why tyrants appeal to people’s emotion. Lust lures people to death, fear drives them into the cages, and anger can turn them into an unthinking mass willing to commit any atrocity.
This is one of the statements that leads me to believe that less is more. I honestly don’t know what I could add to this statement to intensify it or convince anyone who is unwilling to accept its bold simplicity.

Altogether too often there is living proof that emotion has ruled reason when a riot breaks out or when a group of people decide to attack someone they see as threatening. Yet we do not teach our children to use reason rather than emotion. I wonder why?

© 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