Dear Friends,
It seems to me, villains constantly lament their poverty, lack of friends and the state of the world. Shocking really… that people who cannot be trusted are almost always poor and friendless. How is it possible that the world could be in such bad shape, just because most people in truth are villains, and so few are virtuous? Poor villains, they believe the world is against them, and that all their problems are the fault of others. How is it possible, that lying, stealing and cheating could cause people to not want to do business with them? Why would the world treat them bad just because they are scoundrels? It is unfathomable that people wouldn’t befriend liars, thieves and backstabbers. Yet there it is, people who are untrustworthy have it so hard, it is just unfair!
Some people call them users, and others might use the term parasite to refer to a user, I like the term parasite better as is more descriptive. Parasites use people for their own ends without regard to other people’s humanity. Others are seen to the user as targets to be exploited, patsies to be shorn and suckers to be cheated, and yet with all their obvious virtues, (to them), people avoid them? It is almost as if, people don’t like to be lied to, cheated or stolen from? Users, or in other terms, villains, are people who only have “friends” that they can use. People of no use are of no value and as such are irrelevant. Those who use others apparently have a limited ability to understand how their actions effect their own lives.
In this world, there are uncountable numbers of people like this, parasites that exist only to suck the life from others. You see them every day in every walk of life and you certainly know a few. People who lie when the truth would serve them better, who take every opportunity to steal and cheat others, filled with hate, jealousy and envy. There is an old saying, don’t defecate where you eat. As they foul every place they go, like a pig, they must move on to a new place, that they haven’t befouled yet. There is however one place where villains, users and parasites congregate… government. There is no other place where a parasite can have access to the wealth of others to steal, cheat us out of and lie to, like government. As such, government is to a parasite, as carbon dioxide and lactic acid draws mosquitoes.
Poverty is a natural consequence of the parasitic mindset. Everything good and bad comes from other people. Since everyone is self interested no one likes to be taken advantage of. A user can screw someone once, twice or several times, but sooner or later their antics will turn away even the most forgiving of souls. The parasite will find that eventually not a single person will do business with them, no one will buy from them and no one will give them credit. They will find they are cut off from all the advantages that civilization brings, since they themselves are not civilized. Sooner or later all villains will discover that all the goods, knowledge and wisdom of the world is denied them.
Sadly, villains create more villains. As they despoil everything they touch users lower aggregate economic activity. They are like sand in the gears of a car’s transmission. That sand grinds away until the whole mechanism of the economy eventually freezes up, and opportunity is denied to everyone, even the most virtuous. Villains rot our culture and pollute our children’s minds. They create their own cesspool that we must all live in. Combine a lack of opportunity with a culture that is corrosive to virtue and it becomes obvious why villains create villains.
In a society of villains the virtuous must necessarily come to a bad end. Once the percentage of people who are parasites reaches a certain level, even people who are self interested rightly understood, cannot get ahead. There are so few trustworthy people with which the virtuous can do business with the entire economy shuts down. Those who try to be virtuous in a society of liars, cheats and thieves are at a huge disadvantage. In their selfishness, arrogance and egoism, parasites believe they are the smart ones, they are wiser and more worldly, when the very opposite is true. This leads to societal, cultural and economic Armageddon.
Aristotle and Mencius had the philosophy of the “golden mean.” The idea that people should seek the mean, (average) in morality of the society in which we find ourselves. They believed that it is unwise to be too good or too bad. If one finds himself living in Sodom, it is best not to be the most perverted, yet it is equally against one’s interest, to be too prude either. If one finds herself living on Mount Olympus, it is best not to be the most powerful god nor the least but to seek the average. While the golden mean is a valuable thought experiment, in practice one should seek the mean, but try to elevate that mean, not lower it. If one does lower it however it is absurd to lament the results of years one’s own hard labor.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
