From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@piclab.com)
Date: Wed Feb 23 2000 - 09:50:28 MST
> > This depends a great deal on your definition of evil.
>
> I define evil as simply abject selfishness.
Funny, that's pretty much how I define what's good and noble.
The sine qua non of evil for me is dishonesty.
Now I think we probably mostly agree on the specific acts we
would classify as "evil": murder, torture, etc.; but I can't
view these as acts of selfishness, because if one were truly
selfish and educated emself on the best techniques to profit
from others, ey would choose to cooperate and trade because
that's a more profitable strategy than predation in the long
run. Most acts that are described as "selfish" are not evil
because they are selfish, but because they exhibit irrational
short-term thinking. The truly selfish individual takes the
long view, because ey wants to live forever and be obscenely
rich, not just make a few bucks for the moment.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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