Men pretend to be men. Men pretend to be good. But we have laws for a reason, and cops have guns for a reason. Because in the absence of law and the threat of consequence, when a man is removed from penalties and the moral condemnation of witnesses, the savage that has lain within is allowed to rise again. He will do as he pleases- his reason only serving to fulfill his instincts. Because in the end, if we are not forced to civility, we become animals instead- cannibals if needed; the very worst of all creatures in the eyes of God.
...Yeah, this is pretty Nietzsche of me, as it has that ability to take all the joy out of being a human being faster than a PETA convention, but I found it more or less true. It is interesting how we have to somewhat dilude ourselves into believing we are anything but what we really are. Sort of put a speck of dazzle on the plain reality of life to make living more bearable. You know...you're not as judgmental as your neighbors. You look at pictures of yourself...ugh...hate it. I know I look better than that and I will keep taking pictures of myself until I do. And the person who wipes that veneer off for a second is immediately sneered and cast out. I often wondered about the policemen who work with the dark element of human society every day. How of they view the human race? I had a friend who found it disgusting to work in a buffet restaurant because she says the sight of people stuffing themselves over and over again made her sick. This didn't help me out that much since I happen to like buffets myself. Oink...
How do doctors view the human race? Lawyers? Judges? Prostitutes? People who are not allowed to turn a blind eye to man's dark nature. People who live on the border and watch humanities duality swirl around each other like water and oil.
Still, our dark sides are nothing new and nothing that need be hidden. In fact, they should be explored. Because the more we try and hide or stifle that natural part of ourselves, the more we become able to be manipulated by them.
This is a premise that I had just thought up yesterday and been toying with. One of those can't get it out of your head things and I was wondering should I use it in an existing story or make a whole other story behind it. Probably the former since making an entire work around a single idea is generally bad since I could possibly come off as preachy. But aside from the story I found this to be a true statement and a sort of enlightening one. We all think of ourselves as pretty humane, but we are all pretenders who dance under the lights of the law. But what happens when there is no one to tell us what not to do? What happens if there was no law, no rules, no consequences? I think we would realize too quickly that we are and always were the animals we believed ourselves apart from. No more and no less.
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