I was talking to my friend the other day, on
Halliburton's possible overcharging. The conversation soon led to Enron, MCI/Worldcom, Anderson, etc. And I posed the question: Isn't taking someone's life savings, the thing they worked for for years and years, inherently evil?
Richard Dawkin's "The Selfish Gene" said that humans, like all animals, are inherently selfish. It's in our wiring, so to speak. Altruism, which some animals possess, is a higher function of a species. So what does this tell us?
From NYTimes:
"Neuroscientists have given up looking for the seat of the soul, but they are still seeking what may be special about human brains, what it is that provides the basis for a level of self-awareness and complex emotions unlike those of other animals.
Most recently they have been investigating circuitry rather than specific locations, looking at pathways and connections that are central in creating social emotions, a moral sense, even the feeling of free will."
My friend said "By action, it is evil. By intent, I don't know." It's greed, for sure. But what is the point that we make the distinction between "greedy men", and "evil men"? Or does our system set them up to do these things?
I don't like using the word evil. I think it's overused. But that is how I would describe what they did (and possibly continue to do). Yes, they didn't participate in ethnic cleansing, commit genocide, or put their people on 5-year plans; but these people are the Saddam Hussein's of capitalism. They, too, destroyed lives.