Having a conscience, but not having remorse?

[I Care About you]

I have a very strong sense of conscience that tells me what's right and wrong... and when I'm doing something wrong, my mind alerts me and I know it. I have felt remorse and over major things, I do feel it. But when it comes to more minor things, I tend to not feel much remorse for doing it.

 

Have I just learned to ignore my conscience? Or am I suffering from anxiety/depression or something?

[Geishawhelk]

Possibly.

Or maybe it's a defense mechanism absorbed from when you were younger.

Who taught you it's ok to be like this?

 

Can you give an example of what you consider to be a "Small thing"...?

 

(I'm not suggesting it isn't ok...I'm just asking where it might stem from, and why....)

[I Care About you]

Well, for an example... I've been dating this girl for about 2 weeks, but I chose her over another girl. I told this other girl I am in a relationship, but we flirt a little over texts, behind my gf's back. I don't plan to continue this though. I feel a little badly.

 

Another example would be like how I went to Wal-Mart and opened a video games package and took a picture of the "Serial Key" on it, which you use to create an online account for a specific video game. I took around 2-3 keys from Wal-Mart. Don't feel bad at all.

[Geishawhelk]

Well, careful, that's theft...

Maybe it would help to consider the knock-on effect of this... you think you're doing this for your own benefit, but whenever we do something like this, we forget that for everything we 'gain' for ourselves, someone, somewhere, loses out.

Now, you may think that's small beans, but it mounts up, if lots of people do it.

Put it this way... say you had 200 apples you wanted to sell, because you had to pay the rent that day. You have to sell all 200.... at 20cents each.

That's $40.00.

 

But at the end of the day, you realise you only have 32 dollars.

That's $8.00's worth of apples some folk have walked off with. That's 40 apples gone AWOL.

 

You'd be pretty mad, wouldn't you?

So you go down the street, and you see a guy with three apples, in his hand. You know they're yours, because they have your labels on them, but you know you never served the guy.

And he turns on you and says, "Hey, so what? They're only 3 apples, man!"

 

get my drift?

 

What you're doing isn't right, and it isn't fair.

You may not see the 'damage' you cause, and you may think it's peanuts.

But you're doing something to ruin someone else's hard work.

And that's not good........

[I Care About you]

I wish I could feel bad but it was World of Warcraft, the richest game in history. Makes something like 48 million dollars a month on monthly charges to its players. And then there's Wal-Mart, which is the one of the (if not THE) richest corporation on Earth.

 

Logic dictates that no real damage was done. I guess that's why I don't feel remorse. My logic defeats my emotion.

 

There we go, all is well.

[Geishawhelk]

Your logic is flawed.

I'd tell it to the judge if you ever come up in court, and see how flawed your logic is.

It doesn't matter whether you think stealing either from wall Mart or World of warcraft is peanuts.

 

It's still stealing, it's still dishonest and it's still wrong.

You can 'logic' all you like, you'd still be wrong.

 

You are a thief, and one day, you'll get caught. That's why security cameras exist...

[I Care About you]

I got caught once. No charges could be pressed because I never physically stole anything, I only took a picture.

 

I have never physically stolen anything ever. And aside from those 3 "pictures", I've never broken the law since or before.

[DSM-IV Tom]

Sometimes, the more intelligent you get, the less of a conscience you will have.

 

Why?

 

Because logic will begin to dictate. And an intelligent persons range of logic will encompass all the problems with people/our society, and you will systematically stop giving a f***.

[Geishawhelk]

I got caught once. No charges could be pressed because I never physically stole anything, I only took a picture.

 

I have never physically stolen anything ever. And aside from those 3 "pictures", I've never broken the law since or before.

It's probably because they couldn't prove Intent.

But glad to know you have stopped doing this.... You even seem to acknowlege that you may well have been breaking the law.... Which is of course there to protect you as much as it is to protect others.

What you were doing is contravening the Intellectual property Act, but of course, the onus was on them to prove violation..... (having a partner who is studying Law can be a curse at times!)

 

Tom, this systematic ceasing of giving a fouck.... do you see that as positive, or negative for the person in question?

[DSM-IV Tom]

Like 80% of people (At least in the USA) already don't give a ****. So when anyone ceases to give a ****, they become part of a larger picture, and that's really all.

 

It's negative for everyone, but in this society, inevitable. I lost my mind at the age of 14-15 when I was introduced to the internet, and saw how cruel humanity really is.

[Geishawhelk]

I'm a lot older than you, and I haven't lost my mind to anyone, for anything.

Really, I think it's a choice.....

but that's a whole new thread......

[DSM-IV Tom]

Because I bet you steer clear of the bad people and bad things. You won't catch the cruelty of humanity on a support forum. Go to the /b/ forum of 4chan if you want to see what turned me insane.

[D-Lish]

I have a very strong sense of conscience that tells me what's right and wrong... and when I'm doing something wrong, my mind alerts me and I know it. I have felt remorse and over major things, I do feel it. But when it comes to more minor things, I tend to not feel much remorse for doing it.

 

Have I just learned to ignore my conscience? Or am I suffering from anxiety/depression or something?

 

I doubt it's anxiety or depression- unless you manifest other symptoms. But it seems you are talking about feeling the appropriate amount of remorse in relation to specific actions.

 

You'd have a major problem if your conscience didn't function to alert you.

I think it comes down to rationalization and making choices.

 

All of us will rationalize minor indiscretions in order to protect ourselves.

We may know what is okay and what is not- but choose to proceed anyway.

 

You say you feel bad about texting this other girl- but do it anyway. That's a choice - your conscience is doing its job, you're just choosing to do what you want regardless.

 

If everyone rationalized it was okay to steal codes from WOW and deny Wallmart profit- then what would happen. If your current gf found out about your current text exchange with another woman...what would happen?

 

Maybe you just need to start thinking about consequences. It sounds like more of an impulse control issue more than anything else. You haven't had to deal with consequences yet- I'm sure if you lost your gf or got busted for stealing... that would prompt you to listen to your conscience more often.

[Geishawhelk]

Because I bet you steer clear of the bad people and bad things. You won't catch the cruelty of humanity on a support forum. Go to the /b/ forum of 4chan if you want to see what turned me insane.

 

 

Do you still go there?

[DSM-IV Tom]

HELL no I don't still go there.

 

Geisha, let me tell you how sick these people are.

 

Not only do they laugh at pictures of people who commit suicide, not only do they laugh at gore (REAL gore, like pictures of someone with their jaw blown off), but they even joke (i HOPE its a joke and they dont really do this at least) about masturbating to the death and gore and suicide.

 

And the site is EXTREMELY popular. Millions of people. My dark side is really nothing in comparison to that..... No description in the DSM-IV is powerful enough to describe someone on that forum

[2sure]

Uh no, your lackof remorse over things you have done wrong is not caused by depression or anxiety. I'm not a doctor but from your description of your "wrong doings" the cause seems pretty clear:

 

You dont feel bad because you have a sense of entitlement. Its common among those who are immature, those who think they are too smart to get caught, those who think they are somehow above the rules most of us live by.

 

Usually people grow out of this sense of entitlement. If not, Karma will make sure you are humbled. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

[kdark]

Tom, as 4chan self proclaims, they are the ass hole of the internet. It's just a bunch of kids trying to one up each other by posting the nastiest, most disturbing content ever seen. Naturally anyone going to that site will get desensitized to it over time.

 

And as far as stealing WoW serial numbers, just think about the person who buys the game you stole the number from, and when they get home and install the game, patch the entire game, and then find out the number is already taken. You just wasted three or four hours of the poor person who bought the game legitly's time.

 

I work Loss prevention at a major retailer, i see this all the time. And ultimately the cost of merchandise stolen is reflected in the mark up all retailers have when they buy goods from manufacterers. So in the end everyone has to pay for what you stole in the form of higher prices.

 

It's a question of rationalization. I agree with you on how Wal mart and Blizzard are power house companies making boatloads, so its easy to rationalize stealing from them. I know. That's why i have a job. But when everyday people get affected by what you do, that's a different story.