A lot of the evil in the world is actually not intentional. A lot of people in the financial system did a lot of damage without intending to.
Interpretation
Many harmful actions occur without intent, especially in complex systems like finance.
This quote by George Soros emphasizes that much of the harm observed in the world arises not from malevolent individuals but from systemic issues where people act without malicious intent. It challenges the perception of good and evil, suggesting that a deeper understanding of human behavior and systemic dynamics is crucial to addressing the consequences of actions that may inadvertently lead to negative outcomes.
In practice
In a discussion about corporate responsibility during a meeting, one might say, 'As George Soros noted, a lot of the evil in the world is actually not intentional.'
The securitisation of mortgages added a new dimension of systemic risk. Financial engineers claimed they were reducing risks through geographic diversification: in fact they were increasing them by creating an agency problem. The agents were more interested in maximising fee income than in protecting the interests of bondholders. That is the verity that was ignored by regulators and market participants alike.
The collapse of the global marketplace would be a traumatic event with unimaginable consequences. Yet I find it easier to imagine than the continuation of the present regime.
Regulating and taxing marijuana would simultaneously save taxpayers billions of dollars in enforcement and incarceration costs, while providing many billions of dollars in revenue annually.
We are the most powerful nation on earth. No external power, no terrorist organization can defeat us. But we can defeat ourselves by getting caught in a quagmire.
My foundations support people in the country who care about an open society. It's their work that I'm supporting. So it's not me doing it. But I can empower them. I can support them, and I can help them.
The criminalization of marijuana did not prevent marijuana from becoming the most widely used illegal substance in the United States and many other countries. But it did result in extensive costs and negative consequences.
Pacifism is objectively pro-fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help out that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, 'he that is not with me is against me'.
The engineers of the future will be poets.
The human soul, provided it is pure and strong enough, can contact the unseen in waking life as well as in dreams: all that is required is withdrawal of the soul from the tumult of sensory life.
Will minus intellect constitutes vulgarity.
Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.
There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right in America.
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