Without Conscience

Without Conscience is a phrase most often used to describe the attitude of Mass murderers and serial killers and rightfully so; however this doesn’t mean that the phrase should be limited to that. Serial killers are usually without conscience and even when they aren’t they seem to be and the damage they do is just as bad; however it shouldn’t stop there. An example of a serial killer who may not have been quite without conscience could actually be Gary Ridgeway. 

This may seem surprising but when he allocated in court to what he did in court and some of the victims forgave him he began to cry and show emotion. He didn’t do this when he was confronted with vindictiveness. This may have been because he was accustomed to hate; this is what he grew up with and he learned how to deal with it by hating back in return. When confronted with hate he was without conscience but when confronted with compassion and forgiveness he broke down. This should be followed up by an effort to find out how and why they became without conscience so that it can be prevented. Numerous studies have shown that most if not all serial killers have been badly abused and or neglected as a child usually both. This is usually far more extensive than the abuse many others endure as children. It is often claimed that others had bad childhoods but didn’t become murderers, This is true but there is a reason for it and that reason should be studied so that child abuse can be prevented for everyone whether they are at risk of becoming a murderer or not.

This is often down played for emotional reasons or political reasons and solutions are passed up as a result. When solutions are not implemented then the problem will remain or escalate. Would it be reasonable to consider the possibility that those who downplay the effect of child abuse on Mass Murderers are also without conscience? I think it is worth considering; however I don’t think that most of the people who do this are without conscience just those that understand that they are preventing solutions for political reasons and do it any way. When someone is angry and does the best they know how to this doesn’t mean they are without conscience; however when someone like Nancy Grace manipulates the crowd and puts on an act so bad that it is hard to believe that she believes her own point of view. If she really understands that what she is doing is doing more harm than good and does it anyway there is a strong possibility that she is without conscience. The same could be said for many other talking heads that manipulate the less educated members of the public including Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Geraldo and many others. 

This could also include many of the people behind the scenes that handle the programming and decide what goes on the air. By drowning the public with trash TV and providing no more than a token amount from academic sources that truly try to explain to the public what causes violence and how to prevent it the Mass Media does far more to make the problem worse than to solve it. The term without conscience could and probably should be used for many other events done by many of the most powerful members of our society; however this is rarely done since they have political power and few people care to stand up to them. Would it be considered without conscience to start wars based on false pretenses and then cover this up repeatedly? This is exactly what has been going on for thousands of years and it is well documented for those with the access to the right information. A lot of this is available to the general public although the Mass Media doesn’t put much emphasis on it most of the time. Wars have been started or escalated on many occasions based on false pretenses including Viet Nam, the overthrow of a revolution in Iran in 1953, the later arming of both Iran and Iraq during the 1980’s, the installment of Pinochet in Chile, Manual Noriega, at least one if not both of the Gulf Wars and many others. Should the people that did this be considered without conscience? There is also a much bigger effort to provide advertisements to hype and glorify the military than there is to inform the public about the Peace Corp., Seeds of Peace and other non violent ways of solving problems. If the people who make these choices do so with full knowledge and understanding of the consequences of their action be considered without conscience.

Corporations are industrializing the world at a massive rate and routinely downplaying the damage to the environment. When they first started doing this they may not have fully understood the damage they were doing but now it is hard to believe that any of these corporation don’t understand that the pollution they are causing is killing thousands if not millions of people. In many cases they are often influencing foreign governments for profit. This often leads to wars where millions are killed. Should they be considered without conscience for this as well? Capitalism has become a belief system where a small percentage of the rich obtain their wealth by distorting the way society is perceived and run so they can increase their wealth at a much bigger expense to the vast majority of the public. Corporations put more emphasis on trade and jobs since they can skim a percentage every time they sell something but little emphasis on whether the products are actually providing a benefit for the public. This has dominated the lives of everyone so much that trade has become much more important than quality of life or even life itself. When ever quality control causes risk to life they often cover it up rather than try to fix it in the most effective way possible. The excessive focus on trade also takes people away from their families and distracts them from addressing the most important social problems we have. Should this Capitalist mentality be considered without conscience?

This was first posted on Tripod on 11/28/09; and now it seems even more obvious that those that control the corporations and government are without conscience.

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The following are the original replies when this was first posted on Open Salon.

"Without Conscious"? The word you want is "conscience".

TheBadScot February 26, 2011 12:18 PM

You expect me to know how to spell too?

er I mean what are you talking about?

zacherydtaylor February 26, 2011 01:07 PM

Marxist psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich once observed that all contemporary political leaders are sociopaths (i.e. have no conscience). He viewed repeatedly electing sociopaths was a bad habit of citizens of modern democracies - almost like an addiction - and society would continue going downhill until they learned to quit doing it. Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhall February 26, 2011 06:24 PM