“The competition between human beings destroys with cold and diabolic brutality…. Under the pressure of this competitive fury we have not only forgotten what is useful to humanity as a whole, but even that which is good and advantageous to the individual….”

—  Konrad Lorenz , book Civilized Man's Eight Deadly Sins

pp 45-47
Civilized Man's Eight Deadly Sins (1973)
Context: The competition between human beings destroys with cold and diabolic brutality.... Under the pressure of this competitive fury we have not only forgotten what is useful to humanity as a whole, but even that which is good and advantageous to the individual.... One asks, which is more damaging to modern humanity: the thirst for money or consuming haste... in either case, fear plays a very important role: the fear of being overtaken by one's competitors, the fear of becoming poor, the fear of making wrong decisions or the fear of not being up to snuff.

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Konrad Lorenz 17
Austrian zoologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology… 1903–1989

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