[Dragaera] "Work" and money

[Jon Lincicum]

Davdi Silverrock wrote:
> Someone who so easily dehumanizes his murder victims that all he
> thinks of the process of turning a living, thinking fellow human into
> a corpse is just a challenge to be enjoyed, is practically the
> textbook definition of a sociopath.
>   

I would argue that context and motivation make a big difference here.

Certainly I would agree that a person killing another for no motivation 
other than personal satisfaction falls under the definition of a sociopath.

To the left, there are other motivations that make this distinction less 
clear.

"Killing for money" while hardly admirable, does not require social 
maladjustment--it merely requires greed, and the ability to rationalize 
one's actions. (Vlad
falls under this category.)

"Killing for duty" is more socially acceptable. Anyone from the 
executioner beheading a traitor after a fair trial to a general ordering 
a charge on the battlefield.
Was Robert E. Lee a sociopath? Is Morrolan a sociopath?

"Killing for honor" is an area somewhere in between these lat two 
examples. It depends greatly on the society that one is in. A mortal 
duel, for example, today would be seen as barbaric, and the participants 
would likely be considered deviants; whereas in the 18th century, 
Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr (two of our greatest leaders of the 
day) saw it as a perfectly acceptable solution to a social disagreement. 
Were these people sociopaths?

Majikjon