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

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 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 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 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 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

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 31 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Government is a necessary evil; therefore it behooves men who wish to be free to make sure that government stays as small and as weak as possible. T. Jefferson
I’m not sure if this is an actual quote or a paraphrase of Thomas Jefferson, but I am sure that it correctly reflects his sentiments with regard to government. Government is necessary to maintain civil order but the larger the government gets the less responsive it is to the needs of the people.

Indeed for a government to be ‘good’ it must be small, transparent, and essentially dependent on the people in order to carry out its legitimate functions of keeping the peace and guarding the borders.

I’m also fairly certain that all of the founding fathers of the USA would be aghast at giant corporations like GM, Google, GE, et al.

© 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

Lesson 26 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

If good people don’t fight for what is right and good, evil people win!

What more needs to be said about this issue?

I suppose a great deal since there are some people (I think they are evil…) who say that you cannot really know what is right or good. Therefore it behooves us to consider what our definition of right and good is. When you are certain you know what is good then do not let others change your mind. When you do something look at the result, if other people are actually helped or improved by it there is a good probability that you are doing good. Conversely if people are being harmed and not improving because of what you are doing then you are doing wrong and to my mind possibly doing evil.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 22 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Money is neither good nor evil; it is simply a tool. The mind that employs a tool may be good or evil, but the tool itself has no moral value.
I originally wrote this statement to clarify the idea that greed is a human problem not money lest anyone not be able to understand the previous lesson that greed is at the heart of all evil. I do not believe at all that any tool or thing which has no self-will can be evil. That leaves the question of semi-sentient creatures like apes, cats, dogs and whales. For those I don’t know but I have my reservations about cats. I do believe that cats can be evil. Maybe cats are not as evil as people but still they display a great deal of pleasure in torture.

© 2010 Vic Jones

Solitary Dreams

Solitary Dreams


When alone,

With my imagination,

It is possible to be,

Anything I want to be,

To be with anyone I want to be with,

And then I think,

How can I be good?

And I remember,

That I have to concentrate on being good,

Or more than likely,

I will be bad!

© 2010 Vic Jones

Daily Question 9

If you intend to do good but the results of your action is the increase of human suffering (or evil) then can you not see that you have done evil?
The only time that you (or I) can be certain that we have done good is when the results of our actions matches the intention of our hearts. In fact the disconnect between our intentions and the result of our action is something we must always examine. If the end result of our action does not match our intention then when will we become honest and change our actions until the results we desire are met?

© 2010 Vic Jones