Reply #14: When trying to define what constitutes “morals” one must look at a combination of several

[Larry Ogg]

influencing factors which include, evolution and genetics, the external influence of environment, family, cultural and religion passed on from generation to generation, and then of course you need some sort of language to interpret it all. Its interesting that Lakoff asserts “that empathy is the source of morality.”, and the link you gave to empathy states, “Anyone not capable of empathy is regarded as a sociopath, someone not to be trusted.” .

If sociopath / psychopath is a genetic abnormality that renders the individual incapable of feelings such as empathy, then I could say the source of empathy is genetic, and I could go one step further than Lakoff and say genetics is the source of morals, but as I previously stated, there are several influencing factors of which genetics is but one. That lump in your throat or knot in your belly feeling that accompanies moments of deep empathy might be more instinctual than it is learned, it’s the effect of the natural world as it is playing out within our conscience, you could say it’s the genetic foundation that knows right from wrong, ware we store and build the morals of our character which are latter learned, first from our family and then from culture and religion passed on from generation to generation.

Some times it just isn’t enough to “have a good sense of right or wrong”, (we’ve all heard that term before). When you add to the mix the influences of the evil known as the psychopath, who does not like the moralizing limitations placed on them by normal peoples conscience, things begin to go awry . Normal people are all basically good and want to do good things for all, but the short coming of normal people is that they believe all people are created equally and are basically good, but that is simply not the case. Psychopath is the exception to the rule, and psychopath is the seed of evil looking for fertile ground in a world dominated by moralizing normal people with moral laws that simply get in the way and restrict the goals of the psychopaths who consider themselves superior to normal people who are limited by their conscience. So psychopath, in order to create the world in their image, a world ware psychopath is the master and normal people are their slaves, becomes yet another external influence in the creation of what normal people call morals. Incidentally it is estimated that 6 % of the worlds population are genetic psychopaths.

Consider for a moment, it takes years of training for a normal person to become a psychologist, and then it takes years of experience and practice for that person to develop an understanding and an intuitive feel for what is going on in a patients mind. But for the psychopath who’s brain is genetically void of conscience, there is an instinctive awareness of its (conscience) presents and how it works in normal people, in fact they are so aware of the conscience in normal people they can tell if a person walking down the street is a psychopath like themselves, with no conscience, and they are drawn together like drops of oil in a bowl full of water.

So how do psychopaths influence what society considers moral or immoral? First of all the have to get into positions of authority because people are properly conditioned to listen to persons of authority such as politicians and clergy. Now once in these positions their only limitations would be their sphere of influence. The influence and damage caused by a psychopath congressman would be considered miniscule in comparison to the influence and damage caused by a psychopath head of state, or a psychopath that controls the heads of state via great wealth. But its these little influences, and the goal, that slowly eroded the long established good and sensible moral values and laws, making it possible for a psychopath wrapped in a flag and holding a cross too steal two elections and the White House, and to redefine the moral standards and laws once considered sacred in America, significantly enough to divide the country. Has it been enough to conquer? That is something to few are knowledgeable enough to ask, and fewer who are knowledgeable enough to answer…

Much of my understanding of this subject has been learned from the book http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/political_ponerology_lobaczewski.htm">Political Ponerology: A Science on The Nature of Evil adjusted for Political Purposes by Andrew M. Lobachevski. I haven’t even scratched the surface of the “moral” discussion presented in the book because there are a lot of related concepts that need to be understood, witch is a whole chapter of the book. One needs to understand the conditions of normal people witch open the doors to psychopaths influence, the book will go into the great and amazing detail…