Thread: Is it ethical to hurt your DCs?

Originally Posted by DreiHundert

I personally believe that "Morals" are less than real... Just something we've come up with to keep ourselves safe.

That is very close to the way people with "sociopathy" look at things. I am not sure it counts as a good thing when we hear some one say that. The sociopathic mind would say that every one feels this way, but they keep their mouth shut. The truth is that it is a fairly rare person who wants to infict suffering, but the only reason they do not is fear of punishment. That is why it gets its own mental illness title "sociopathy". Most people have reasons related to emotional feelings that would keep them from violent acts. If you gave power to many different people, it is either the drug abuser (like meth) or a rare odd broken person, who desires to cause suffering on any fiendish level. I can not prove what I have said, but I imagine many level headed people understand my point.

Me and my wife joke that all teens are naturally sociopathic. It is not true of course, but when I played role playing games as a teen, I wanted to be an assassin or some such. However, before I turned say 25 I did not want to fantasize about being dirty, or cruel. I have really only played heros (paladins) in any RPG for over 15 years. I honestly do not kill people in dreams or take part in weird violent dreams. That is not because I hold myself back out of a sense of "is it moral." The simple truth is that no part of me wants to fantasize about death or gore. It will sound preachy or judgemental, but I assume that an evolution away from enjoying violent stuff is a good and natural path for most people. I pass no judgement on people for having the fantasies they naturally have, but if it were a friend, I would hope that the direction he would choose to grow in, would lead him to a more peaceful self.

Originally Posted by sivason

That is very close to the way people with "sociopathy" look at things. I am not sure it counts as a good thing when we hear some one say that. The sociopathic mind would say that every one feels this way, but they keep their mouth shut. The truth is that it is a fairly rare person who wants to infict suffering, but the only reason they do not is fear of punishment. That is why it gets its own mental illness title "sociopathy". Most people have reasons related to emotional feelings that would keep them from violent acts. If you gave power to many different people, it is either the drug abuser (like meth) or a rare odd broken person, who desires to cause suffering on any fiendish level. I can not prove what I have said, but I imagine many level headed people understand my point.

Me and my wife joke that all teens are naturally sociopathic. It is not true of course, but when I played role playing games as a teen, I wanted to be an assassin or some such. However, before I turned say 25 I did not want to fantasize about being dirty, or cruel. I have really only played heros (paladins) in any RPG for over 15 years. I honestly do not kill people in dreams or take part in weird violent dreams. That is not because I hold myself back out of a sense of "is it moral." The simple truth is that no part of me wants to fantasize about death or gore. It will sound preachy or judgemental, but I assume that an evolution away from enjoying violent stuff is a good and natural path for most people. I pass no judgement on people for having the fantasies they naturally have, but if it were a friend, I would hope that the direction he would choose to grow in, would lead him to a more peaceful self.

Before I begin, allow me to say that the line that you have quoted was poorly written and, in retrospect do not reflect my beliefs at all.
What I meant was that morals are a concept that is not concrete -- not the same for everyone. There are different moral structures built by different... laws and doctrines, etc... But the primary goal of morality is to prevent violence and prevent people from doing harm to others.
You may have understood my post to mean that I'm a sadistic psychopath. Rest assured that those are not the only things I would do in simulations and dreams - they are simply the ones relevant to this particular topic.

Morals are mostly irrelevant in dreams. However, if someone dreams solely for the purpose of causing harm to others, it may be a reflection of their desires in real life.

I agree that morality is subjective, it differs between cultures, and between individuals. Going into dream morality makes things even more complex to deal with, and I feel it is impossible to tell someone else what is moral or not for them to do, at least in the dream.

I always feel that if I want to do something and am okay with it, I can do it, and if I am not sure about something or it makes me uneasy, no one can force me to do it. It is so simple yet so many people ask others to affirm their moral standpoint or give them one to adopt. When someone creates one of these threads, which I am sure we all see often, people will all give different opinions, from do or don't do this, to do whatever you want. With all of these differences, the OP will have to choose who to listen to, and I am willing to bet that more often than not they pick the one they would have chosen for themselves anyway.

It gives me the impression that a lot of people do not have a very strong sense of what their own morality is, and they should work on that IMO. You do not need some person on the internet to tell you what is right for you, you need to decide what is right for you.

Aside from that, I would say go for it, since you wouldn't be asking if it was okay to do something if you didn't want to do it. Just make sure that your okay with it.