Do you think ambition has an inherently evil side to it?

Of course not, competition is a part of life. Do people take it too far sometimes? Yes, but there’s nothing inherently evil about ambition, not to mention it’s a very subjective term. You could call Ayn Rand ambitious.

@Blackberry: That’s a perspective I didn’t really consider. Also by ambition I meant the desire to become the best of/at something, as it pertains to the novel Macbeth.

@babybadger Ambition is what it is. @Blackberry Hasn’t used the word out of context at all. I don’t think there is always an evil side. Of course I don’t believe there in competition but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Ambition along side with intention is always good to be paired. Good intentions for me = good ambition.

@babybadger Yeah, but I guess there should a level of moderation with all things. For example, if we claimed a mother was very ambitious and wanted to be the best mother she could be, that could be interpreted as either good or bad, because she could really be the greatest mother, or she could be too overbearing.

@Blackberry: I guess you also have to look at the way people try to reach their goals…take the great mother example. If she tried to become the best by stealing the best dietary supplements for her child (probably a stupid example, but I think it works), then she’d obviously have ridiculously clouded judgment/priorities. But maybe, just maybe, that ambition made her a little dark inside.

@babybadger Yeah, or poisoning another kid at her daughter’s recital to clear the competition. Lol.

There you go! Maybe the origin of psychos is ambition! haha.

I’m more concerned with total lack of any ambition whatsoever. It’s been my experience that people who are like that can be equally as dangerous as people with too much ambition. Yet, they’re not noticed as much.

They kill progress, hamper teamwork, leave important tasks unfinished, have no interest in goals and are impossible to drag along when things need to be done. Their lack of follow through or commitment has a domino effect on others, especially on their families, but because they did “nothing” they think they’re not accountable. Ugh.

To me evil is the act of taking the quality of life away from someone. Someone with no ambition can do that to an equally destructive degree as someone who will hurt others to get ahead. Ambition is required to move forward, finish tasks, and make progress, but when it becomes “at the expense of others,” it’s evil.

There is nothing evil in ambition itself. It’s how people act on their ambition that could be evil.

“To reach for power – one already has flaw in one’s character. There has never been an altruistic politician or corporate head, and there never will be one, because the men who could become such have no desire for power. Their lives are fulfilled without it. And those who seek it are already corrupt.” – Charles de Lint, Svaha

No, not inherent. I am ambitious but I have a moral code that I won’t break in order to get ahead.

Dictionary definition: an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honor, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment:

Doesn’t sound like a bad thing to me, actually I think there should be more of it. We would be in sad shape without it.

Ambition is not inherently evil, but it can limit the focus of the ambitious person & prevent them from seeing how their all-consuming ambition is affecting the people that they are supposed to love, the people who love them. If they do not make the effort to maintain true contact with the people that they care about…... they may succeed in their ambitious endeavor but lose the very people that they love.

NO