"And so they grow richer and richer, and the more they think of making a fortune the less they think of virtue; for when riches and virtue are placed together in the scales of the balance, the one always rises as the other falls."
Discussion
Are virtues even real? Or are they just constructs, abstractions like every other abstraction, created to prevent individuals from gaining power?
One way of looking at this is that yes, they are constructs, but in the paradoxical service of freedom or power. A master musician or martial artist needs rules to start with, scales and kata for example. The rules can judiciously be thrown away at times too. Knowing how and when to remove the constraints - that's the difficult part, although experience definitely comes into play here. Just an opinion 👍