JohnAskew wrote:Yes. I believe it is %100 due to external compelling influences.
Larsenal wrote:
Do you really believe that it is mostly the result of some external compelling influence?
I 'see' a better toy -- I grab it... greed is exposed to us from outside.
We do not start with greed within and then apply it to the 'seen' toy.
We disagree.
The inanimate toy does not say, "Buy me!" You say to yourself, "I want you, you lovely iPhone!"
If I strike you, why do you want to strike back? Where does the instinct to strike back in anger come from? It comes from inside you, not from the other person. We can pass the buck for a while, but at the end of the chain there's someone who cannot justly say, "He started it."
How would you account for so much evil in the world? If doing evil was compelled by external factors, would we not always regret doing wrong? I find that this is not the case. Too often I take pleasure in manipulating things in my favor. Or I rejoice for a moment for having made someone else look like a fool.
