And yet perhaps the Third World War will finally offer me on a platter my secret wish I can't even admit to myself, this wish to kill people on a massive scale. To drop a nuclear bomb over a populated area and in one time swoop annihilate millions of them, I'm thinking of Iran. I am only being ironic here in order to make a point, but it is true that in war soldiers get to love to kill, and cheer each others as they annihilate villages and entire cities. How one nuclear bomb could end this war right now, conscience is far gone by then.
Many feel like this is justified and go on to do just that. Whilst I can't even conceptualize how I would live with myself if I thought I had caused the death of one single human being, even indirectly or accidentally. In fact, I could not live with my conscience if I had caused someone to lose his or her job. I would be a very bad manager indeed, I could not make the big decisions. I would always try to salvage it without anyone being hurt. As I am a fool, I believe I could achieve it somehow, it will be my downfall.
The truth, you might not like it, but sometimes you have to make the big decisions and hurt people. Pressure from your superiors, only acceptable solution when the person is obviously highly incompetent, whatever else you could use to ease your conscience. And if you can justify it, and somehow you can always justify it, you can be as cruel as required in order to achieve whatever goal you have set for yourself or that others have set for you. Great news, you can learn to be cruel and live happily ever after with your clear conscience, as it was necessary or you had no choice, as simple as that.
Where would this world be without a conscience? I reckon we would all be at war, assuming we would not have self-destruct by now. Oh, but we are at war. I can understand society, governments and religions would feel it important for us all to have a conscience, and work hard building up one in a way which would be acceptable to them all, bringing some sort of peace and acceptation of others, some order, at the very least some resemblance of a tolerance. All in some sort of huge mixed signals kind of machine, where being at war at the same time is normal and essential, and messages of hate are common place.
How have you been programmed to react in any circumstance? For example, when you come across a gay couple or a criminal stealing a mobile phone to support a drug addiction. What about a soldier who enjoys killing 10,000 people without regret or remorse, proud of himself as he served his country as a hero?
When is it that your conscience kicks in? Why is it not kicking in faster than when your next door neighbor from hell gives you a hard time (when it concerns you more directly)? When do you decide that someone is a monster and that he or she needs to be put in prison or executed? Everything is so relative, whilst laws are constantly changing.
Due to propaganda and PR campaigns, I'm not sure where any of us stand when confronted with wars, cruelty like torture, unacceptable behavior and conscience. Is it all just conventions and it changes with the government, the centuries, with the decades even, and who decides what is acceptable or not?
I am uneasy with the concepts of guilt, remorse and conscience. I feel it is unnatural, that somehow it was implanted inside of me, I feel the need to fight it. Until I can be what I feel I ought to be, a cold bloody killer. Or a nice guy if I can somehow learn that I don't like being hurt, and so I should not cause pain if I can avoid it, and I should not invent endless justifications for it.
It is just not acceptable if we want any kind of livable society where breathing is permissible and not fired upon. Don't let that dog foul on the pavement, it is a crime, we all know you are a criminal deep down. You need to be punished, we all need to be punished for anything we do, and even think.
I am glad I have a conscience even if I was manipulated into acquiring it. At the end of the day everyone deserves a break and it would be nice if this world would be a happy one where everyone could live in total happiness and freedom, without it being a fake happiness obliged upon us by any authority. Being nice naturally instead of being obliged to, must bring more happiness than frustrations that will need to be vented at some point.
Humankind invented conscience, quite early on actually, considering biblical books, and yet, I guess it was a good invention, even though they pushed it to the limits of the unacceptable by conditioning us into falling in line. That kind of conscience is not acceptable as it does not come from us, it was imposed upon us, and then it does not make us better people.
Not many are good Christians in this world. If you are going to be that kind of extreme Christian, you might as well be a suicide bomber, since the result will be the same, as many people would most probably die as a result. Speeches and words are often more powerful than physical violence on this planet. One always has to measure what he or she says, especially if they know their words are far reaching, like when they are part of the mass media machine we have all come to distrust in recent years. It has a real impact, and often it is impossible to measure.
Many talking in such terms as to make you believe that something that cannot be right is actually acceptable, are people taking advantage of others, people who have no conscience of their own. If you only have a conscience because you are afraid of God or undue consequences from the law or any sort of authority, then this is a world where freedom simply does not exist, it is too high a price to pay.
It would be better to develop your own personal conscience based upon your own personal experience, as in: "Would you like others to do to you what you do to others?" Then I would prefer to know where I stand. I would know that you have no conscience, that you are prepared to do anything to destroy me, and then I could forget my own conscience and destroy you before you destroy me. Of course as I do have a conscience, I would simply let you win and be gone. How hurtful would it be to me to play your mind games for a while until you succeed in annihilating me, I can't even describe.
I feel sorry for the people who have a strong conscience, they are at risk of being hurt so badly by people who have no conscience at all, or who can justify the conscience they have. Life would be much easier if none of us had any conscience, but then the world would cease to exist. It would be nice if we all had the same level or standard of conscience, then it would be leveled, and we would all stand a chance for survival. As it is not the case, sometimes we have to put our conscience aside and fight back, only in self-defense though, as far as our conscience will allow it.
Sometimes I wonder if it is worth to have a conscience if others don't have one. It sorts of cancels your own conscience, make you wonder why you should have one at all if no one else has. If you have a conscience, you will have to accept people hurting you badly and you will not be able to retaliate or take revenge, you will essentially die a martyr, a badly hurt human being wondering about the unfairness and injustice of this world.
