Somnus (Sleep in Latin)

Have anyone read the latest manga chapter (chapter 329) of Magi - Labyrinth of Magic? Not to speak too much and spoil the story for other fans of the series, but in this particular chapter, Sinbad decided to reveal his true nature, as a person who is greedy and ambitious.

Actually, this is not entirely a bad thing. In fact, I believe that is part of a human nature, to hoard resources in order to secure one's survival. Personally, I believed that a moderate amount of greed and ambition would help fuel one's motivation for self-improvement. In order to seek for a better life quality or high social ranking, we need to put in more thoughts and efforts than the other people around us. One such outcome is an increase in one's productivity. Furthermore, this may encourage others to cooperate or compete, if and only if the playing ground is level. Overall, this may result in socioeconomy progression of a community.

If we are too contentious of our existing lifestyle, we may soon settle into our comfort zone. As a result, we may lose any will or momentum to make positive changes in all of our works and effort. Personally, I suffered from this phenomemon quite recently. It took a lot of effort for me to make a jump out of that comfort zone into a new workspace. However, for better or for worse, I do see that some of my peers have fallen deep inside this pitfall.

Of course, reality is not all that ideal. In face of competition, many people may resort to under-hand tactics to undermine their competitors. On this issue, I believe the labour law and work ethics have been established to alleviate it. Nevertheless, the strict compliance to labour law and work ethics by the masses may still be poor. The ideal situation is not yet a reality.

As opposed, greed and ambition is bad when in excess. If one is consumed by greed and ambition, he or she may be too focused onto protecting their own self-interests and commit criminal acts with are against social order. Again, I would rely on laws and ethics to manage this problem, which may also be assisted through morality, religion and home education.

Allow me to write more on this topic later, when I have more time to read and understand about capitalism and socialism.