it depends upon what you definition of ego is and also what you aim is
I think from the view of someone who is trying to achieve a cosmic oneness (whatever they may call it) ego is ultimately the enemy because it carries the illusion of separation with it. As long as you have ego, you will be separate.

I don't think of my ego as being evil or bad. Its can be a nuisance (as I think the ego is the nay sayer, or my self doubt) but sometimes its good to double check yourself before acting.

IMO, it's largely semantics.

Ego is related to consciousness is related to will, desire, and experience. From a shamanic perspective, you have to have some... well, Carlos Casteneda called it an "assemblage point" where sensation is collected, processed, and turned into experience.

Personally, I don't think ego is necessarily bad. I think there's a set of problems which can occur when it is given too much credence and I think that there's a set of problems that occur when it is given too little credence. Ego is necessary for creating and maintaining agreements. For making plans. For conscious learning and for intentional reasoning in the abstract. It's not strictly necessary for "body" learning, but imo, the people who are weak on ego can't really make a commitment to continuing to learn or to consistent rituals. They tend to be more blown about by the winds of social whatever and can't really make a stand.

Ego is the thing that recognizes identity, ownership, and experience. In the absence of ego, none of those things exist.

Whether these are good things or bad sort of depends on your perspective. If you're mired in expectations heaped on you by your parents, believe that society dictates who you must be, and you spend considerable amounts of attention on these things, or on superficial values like appearances, then you might benefit from the loss of some ego.

However, if you enjoy life generally, but sometimes regret that you havent' or can't participate in long term or deep projects, sciences, academia, manage your money, or own a house, then you might benefit from the recognition of and added attention to ego.

The ego has a position rather like the demiurge. It stands between the real you, your soul, psyche, whatever and the rest of the universe. It is the interface between the two. Illusions created by the memory process also permit the ego to reconstitute the residual selfimage.

Good question. Freud studied the wrong thing which is the false mind. True mind is not the psyche, it is the original mind.
The RTRRT are concentrated on this true mind that is unknown to society, thus majikal. tribes.tribe.net/RTRRT

I do not believe we should or even can get rid of it. We need to work with it. It is like a spoiled child screaming for attention. We need to love it it so it feels safe and a part of the whole.

An elected voice, put in place to smooth social functioning.
A faculty which grants us the practical, yet illusory, tool of "I"

This tool grants us the ability to divide - "This, not that"
Grants us to say "I don't need to look at this right now, because I already know it's specifics" (Which, for all it's TREMENDOUS REPERCUSSIONS - Ignorance - has a lot of value based off of Left Brain functions. Such as language.)

The same faculty that allows the sound of the clock to become invisible in the background, which, in turn, allows us to read a book in a crowded place, in peace.

The same thing that grants us a lens through which we experience transpersonal sensations, born of a semi-static body and circumstance.

A good friend, that shouldn't starve, but should, not oft, be satisfied.

Egos are like balloons.
The bigger they get, the more likely they are to catch on things, and the more noise they make when they deflate.

ONE CAN NEVER GET RID OF THE EGO THAT IS FOOLISH NONSENSE- FIRST OF ALL THE EGO DOESNT EXISTS- ITS A WORD- ITS NOT THE IT- FORGET EGO What is important is for you to emotionally and intellectually understand that you arent important none of us are- let it go- let it go- now in terms of getting rid of the EGO all this means is find a way to your calm center of your true self- and your false self will drop away- but aside from an occasionalLSD trip or dancing for a day or two- the best way to ensure of this is serious DAILY PRACTICE of meditation or concentration excercises

look I have tripped over 333 times on good Harvard LSD- had bad trips and so called good ones and you simply can not lose your EGO it takes a lot of work to remain in n "egoless" state of mind a LOT OF CONINOUS work and then to what end?

I think the good nuns of St. John's, where I attended elementary school, would have referred to the ego as "your conscience" or/and "your demon".
Personally, I think the ego is a weird by-product of our dependency on language. It gave voice to some minor function of the brain that questions intent. A wild animal moves and acts purely doing what his true will requires, and doubt comes to play as a cautionary survival impulse. It's not that it isn't always presents but in a non-verbal mind it's influence is negligible except in moments of stress. In a verbal mind it finds a voice, increasing in intensity with stress, true, but also always present like some background program. Sometimes though we stimulate this center ourselves because we confuse it with our true self. We make it apart of ourself indentity, but in reality is a kind of addiction. This is what is referred to as neurosis.

Another way of looking at it, once again using an animal model, is when wild animals are being tamed through the breaking of its will. Essentially, heightening the cautionary impulse, creating self doubt. I would go as far as saying the taming of a being is to create for it an ego to counter it's true will.

Quoting from Wikipedia, though I knew this before i read the article (is that my ego?)

full article available: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego

"Id, ego, and super-ego are the three parts of the "psychic apparatus" defined in Freud's so-called structural model of the psyche; they are the three theoretical constructs in terms of whose activity and interaction mental life is described. According to this model, the uncoordinated instinctual trends are the "id"; the organised realistic part of the psyche is the "ego," and the critical and moralizing function the "super-ego.". . .

The terms "id," "ego," and "super-ego" are not Freud's own but are latinisations originating from his translator James Strachey. Freud himself wrote of "das Es," "das Ich," and "das Über-Ich"—respectively, "the It," "the I," and the "Over-I" (or "Upper-I"); thus to the German reader, Freud's original terms are more or less self-explanatory." end citatation

So, if the ego is the I, why should one eradicate the I?

Many traditions vary tremendously on the value of identity, whether it exists validly, or should be expunged.
For example, modern neurology shows consciousness to be a system rather than a singularity, no point in the brain system has been mapped to be the true center of awareness, identity is an everchanging interplay of those systems.

In my experience, what most spiritual teachers mean when they say you must eradicate ego, is that you must learn to control desire and your sense of your self before and above others. In essence you are asked to let go of your distance to other beings and become one with everything, and ultimately one everything, no identity is needed because we have lost the I, which has been telling us all along that we are nothing without our sense of self, our ego, while in reality we are everything without it.

But this is the end state, usually the result of much work on whatever path we choose. It could be instantaneous, but often is not. Some say this is due to karma, others that we must surrender to the glory of god, still others that we must learn to forgive.

So, when you are ready, willing and able to say, "I am we, and we are I," do us all a favor and don't be too hard on yourself, and do your best.

But if you must be selfish, then be wisely selfish, and make your desire the happiness of others, remembering to be truly magnanimous and unwanting of praise, but accept it when it is given.
AJ