Kim Jones wrote: > On 23/03/2009, at 1:56 AM, John Mikes wrote: > > >> Russell, >> you are not alone as the target of this remark... >> >> Many people consider 'creativity' (like "change", "quality" etc.) a >> POSITIVE concept. - WRONG. - >> Just consider the recent creative financial genius Maddoff, with his >> b$50 scam - he was creative. And so are tyrants, criminals, galore. >> (Don't forget politicians<G>) >> > > > But surely people are driven by their VALUES, John? Creativity is like > a gun - it's about as good or as bad as the person wielding it. I > could go one better than you in this direction: the perpetrators of > 9/11 were creative geniuses (as Karlheinz Stockhausen, German composer > said publicly on the day of 9/11, after seeing the TV images). They > gave the world an incredibly potent lesson in Lateral Thinking: when > is a jetliner not a jetliner? When it's a BOMB... > > But you fail to mention the beneficial creativity of people like Ray > Kurzweil (My Kurzweil 2500 sampling keyboard-synthesiser will be > buried with me in my coffin), Tim Berners-Lee (who invented the Web) > and - well, I'm tempted to add Steven Wolfram for his Alpha Net engine > but then I can hear the howls of disapproval already. > > John, if it hadn't been for creativity the human race would still be > living in caves and living in fear of darkness and night. > > Creativity merely IS, like elephants and soy beans. You can use it to > do "good" or "wreak evil". More or less the proof that it is something > real and worthy of our further effort of understanding. > > > Madoff was (is) indeed creative - I wouldn't give you five cents for > his values though. Hitler was in some respects a creative genius, > unfortunately he possessed very dubious values. > > > Best regards, > > Kim Actually, Madoff was just skillful - not creative. Ponzi was creative.
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