[ExI] Life @ Playstation

[James Clement]

On Sun, Nov 4, 2012 at 3:05 PM, Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com> wrote:


> In principle, this is a simple Paretian (or Darwinian?) issue. In a
> society where the best thief is king, those who are best mostly choose to
> be thieves. Why shouldn't they?
>
> Of course, people are not just motivated by money. But if power, status,
> fame, self esteem, access to scarce resources, sex appeal, influence, peer
> recognition, etc., are in a given culture just a reflection of your wealth,
> I suspect that your market value becomes a good approximation of what the
> culture concerned thinks that you are worth.


Social Darwinism is an excuse to be sociopathic, IMHO (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Darwinism). None of the super-geniuses
I know are truly motivated to "compete" in society. Most are too caught up
in their own thoughts (some might say in an autistic manner) to care about
what society thinks of them. That's not so say they're social misfits (any
more than normal people), just that they seem uninterested in proving
anything to anyone. The people who have been motivated towards power whom
I've known have all been of lesser talent and abilities, with something to
prove, vis-a-vis other people.

James
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