4 ms·

Your point is...?

• stephengillie 13y ago
  That quote gets trotted out often, but it's highly meaningless.
  • tbrownaw 13y ago
    How so? Some people want to cause X (call this "good"), some people want to cause not-X (call this "evil"). If the people who want to cause X fail to act on that want, it makes it more likely that not-X will happen. There's also the fact that most common definitions of "good" and "evil" tend to align more-or-less along "evil" favoring immediate benefits to self while "good" favors more distant benefits to others, which leads to failure to act tending to associate more with ideals considered "good".
    • stephengillie 13y ago
      Let's swap "good" and "evil" in your statement: > Some people want to cause X (call this "evil"), some people want to cause not-X (call this "good"). If the people who want to cause X fail to act on that want, it makes it more likely that not-X will happen. Terrorist/freedom fighter, whistleblower/enemy informant, "po-tae-to"/"poh-tah-to", etc.
      • pessimizer 13y ago
        Doesn't matter. "All that is necessary for the triumph of the Lakers is that the rest of the NBA do nothing."
        • deleted 13y ago
          [deleted]
        • stephengillie 13y ago
          So you're saying that the entire quote is tautalogically meaningless?
          • pessimizer 13y ago
            No, I'm saying that it's not a exclusively a comment about good and evil, but a comment about doing nothing to prevent an outcome that you don't want. Also "tautologically."
            • stephengillie 13y ago
              Apologies if my wordcrafting isn't correct. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tautology_(rhetoric) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tautology_(rhetoric)