Some name it: greed

Behind my talk of “sophistry” and “plausible deniability” is the primordiality of what cab be only called and what must be called “evil”.

At this stage I talk about Matrix and BluePill, not vampires and such-like antique imagery. My reason for shifting is simple and single: through my previous work on psychopathy (see my “Fallen Angels“, dating from 1996; I recommend “Without Conscience” [now at google books!], by UBC’s Dr. Robert Hare, and M. Scott Peck’s “People of the Lie” [Amazon]) I confirmed an early anticipation: focusing on the pathology is likely to have one en-thralled. (I say “likely” because it’s evidently not inevitable, for e.g. Eric Fromm, so many fine books; academically I suggest “Anatomy of Human Destructiveness” [Amazon])

So … in the midst of marketing bottled water while neo-liberals monopolize water rights … while we’re still clear-cutting … while species and ancient languages are dying off … while the water rises … I rant against “yuppies’ kidz”. An, elsewhere, I caution that karma is inexorable.

But just now heh … the (omnipresent) ad-link in my gmail quizzed, “You think you’re liberal?” … and this is what it pointed at (BTW: neo-conservatives are paradigmatically judgmental and punitive):

Greed

We are a punitive society. We use the death penalty and routinely issue long prison terms for drug offenses. Three-strike policies can mean a life sentence for a petty crime. We make a lot of moral talk about pedophilia, drug use, teen pregnancy and welfare dependency. But nobody talks about the epidemic of cheating.David Callahan, in his book The Cheating Culture, says everybody’s doing it: job applicants, brokers, golfers, reporters, taxpayers, lawyers, insurance payers, employees, athletes, salesmen, students. A cheating culture has emerged.

Cheating has always occurred, but Callahan traces a marked increase since 1970s. He says it’s connected to the free market ethic. It jumped after President Reagan was elected …”

BTW: Scott Peck wrote another book, this one related on another vector. In “Death of Civility” he talks about those who see every social exchange in terms of commercial transaction … those who are en-thralled, but not by evil … those who eat BluePill out of bowls every day.