Rant: On Conscience

In Response to: http://kotaku.com/341253/the-moral-cost-of-video-games

If a man can lose his conscience so easily, he never truly possessed it in the first place.

We all try to sustain certain beliefs. Belief in God, belief in a code of laws, belief in the human conscience. We try to reason that because we can feel remorse, because we have sentience (as we so choose to define it) that we as humans are somehow elevated above the rest of the creatures on this planet. We tell ourselves that because we have technology, because we no longer live in caves and hunt for our food, that we are somehow superior, above the laws of the jungle we left behind so long ago.

This is simply not the case. Every day, human beings prove themselves to be the animals that we are. We kill, maim, rape, steal, betray, and destroy. We commit crimes of passion, because our "human" emotions overwhelm us with hate and despair.

We commit crimes of hatred, because we fear those different from us, for a variety of reasons. Some fear men from other lands, thinking they mean to do harm. Others fear or hate those who believe in another God, or in no God at all. Still others hat those who live a lifestyle outside a loosely defined social norm.
In the end, the conclusion is the same: man is an animal. An animal with a heightened ability to reason, perhaps, but an animal nonetheless. Nothing will ever change that. No matter how many thousands of years of evolution separate us from the jungle, we will always retain that heart of darkness that allowed our species to survive those more savage days. It waits there to be unleashed, waiting to come to our aid in a time when logic fails us, and we are reduced to having to fight and kill to live on.
Throughout the years, many have tried to explain away incidents of terrible violence. Nature versus nurture, they say. They try to tell you people do bad things because they listened to bad music, or played violent video games, or watched too much television, or didn't go to church. But the truth is far simpler, and much more terrible. The equation isn't nature or nature, it's nature AND nurture.
The savage nature of our ancestors is in us all. In some more than others, perhaps. A broken home, a childhood exposed to violence, these factors can contribute to a man losing himself to his animal nature.

But to say that violent movies or video games desensitize a man to violence is to claim he has a sensitivity to it in the first place. This just is not so. Conscience is an illusion, a comfortable lie we convince ourselves is true so that we can face the horrors of the world we live in. We listen to the tales of war and murder in foreign lands and tell ourselves it could not happen here, because we have a "conscience". "I could never do something like that", we say. But it's a lie. We could, and we would. And we have.

But while we might be savage animals at our core, we are able to reason, and in logic comes our salvation. If only we are wise enough to use that power for our benefit. Rather than turning a blind eye to our own nature, we should accept it, and do what we can to change. Only in this way can we move forward as a species. Reliance on the crutches of ancient mysticism or faulty morality will not assist us. Only in looking within, and gazing at the monster that lives inside, can we change.
Look in the mirror, and see the beast. Understand the reasons for your irrational hatreds and prejudices, and cast them away. See through the falsities and misconceptions you carry for what they are. Endeavor to learn more about those matters you do not understand, especially when they relate to other people. In learning to understand your fellow man, you learn to better understand yourself.

While we cannot hope to defeat our nature completely, knowledge is the only tool that can shackle to beast. Go out and get some.