Google Is Pure Evil, says The Buddha

“Is Google Evil Or Good?” is a tired old troll that’s been trolled for years. I’m going to approach this question from a Buddhist perspective.

There is no “good” or “evil”, but only ethically neutral “skillful” and “unskillful” means of pursuing Buddhism’s purpose: the elimination of suffering for one’s self and for all sentient beings. Does Google pursue this goal at all, never mind how skillfully?

No, it does not. Google is a corporation, a legal concept, not a sentient being. It does not know suffering or the elimination of suffering. A corporation exists for one purpose: to make its shareholders ever more money. Google exists solely to feed insatiable greed.

“To stop suffering, stop greediness. Greediness is a source of suffering,” said The Buddha. Ergo, Google’s sole purpose and all it does in pursuit of that purpose are completely unskillful means, for they are exactly the opposite of eliminating suffering. If opposing the elimination of suffering is evil, then Google is pure evil. (So is every corporation, by the way. All corporations exist for the same purpose.)

Google’s founders’ motto, “Don’t be evil”, may have arisen from naivete or cynical public relations cunning. I, and most people, will never know for sure because we will never look into the hearts of Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, where the truth lies. The best we can do is look at Google’s actions in the world and judge them “good” or “evil”.

To judge Google, or anything else, we look at the effects of its actions. Here we run into difficulty judging, because from every action arise multiple effects which fall into both “good” and “evil” categories. Here are some examples of Google’s actions and their effects:

Action: Google has devoted enormous resources to weakening Microsoft’s strangehold on desktop operating systems and applications by giving computer users free alternatives to Microsoft products.

“Good” effects: Microsoft pressured to keep prices down; innovate; treat customers better because they can go elsewhere. Computer users enjoy greater freedom of choice, lower prices. Google shareholders make astonishing amounts of money.

“Bad” effects: Microsoft shareholders do not make as much money as they would like. (Well, you’d cry if you were a MS shareholder!) Computer users desert other software developers for free Google apps, and those other developers die. Google becomes something akin to Microsoft, a near-monopoly. Google inflames the suffering of greediness in its shareholders.

Action: Google indexes and makes cache copies of billions of Web pages.

“Good” effects: people can find things via Google. They can even find things that have been deleted from their host Web servers, preserving evidence of wrongdoing in some cases. Web sites can connect with their audiences more easily. Google even pays Web site operators through its Adsense program, supporting small businesses and entrepreneurship.

“Bad’ effects: people are found who do not want to be found. Information about all who use Google is stored on Google servers, where it can be subpoenaed by courts and seized by governments. In 2002, Google removed from its index links to an anti-Scientology Web site under legal pressure from the Church of Scientology, rendering that site hard to find for people who didn’t already know its URL. Google has obeyed government orders to turn over information about Google users which has led to suffering for those users. Is Google a law-abiding corporate citizen of those countries or a betrayer of human rights activists?

This is karma. Not the half-measure Pollyanna karma expressed in the silly notion, “what goes around, comes around”, but the full, terrifying, indifferently unmerciful karma of Chaos:

From every single action, no matter how “good” or “bad” one’s intentions, arise multiple effects both “good” and “bad”.

Karma is why bad things happen to good people, and why even a human being who perfectly follows Google’s motto will produce effects that others deem “evil”.

Google is neither friend nor foe, good or evil. It is a corporation that will do whatever furthers its purpose of feeding insatiable greed. Every one of Google’s actions will have multiple effects. Every one of those effects will be “good” for someone and “evil” for someone else.

There is no way to calculate the “net good or evil” of Google’s actions, for we canot know the actions’ effects upon every sentient being. You can only form an opinion based upon incomplete information. You can judge Google’s evil or goodness only from ignorance.

“Ignorance is charming in a question, pathetic in opinion.” ~ The Barking Unicorn

Like every other thing which depends upon preceding things for its existence, your opinion will change constantly. Call Google “good” when you find what you seek, or your email comes and goes free of cost, or when you track down that company that ripped you off and then pulled the plug on its Web site. Call Google “evil” when the FBI comes calling about that forum comment regarding the President which you thought was posted anonymously.

But no matter what your ever-changing opinion of Google, it is always skillful at its greedy purpose and completely unskillful at eliminating suffering.

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