I recollected that her eye excelled in brightness, that of any other animal, and that she has no eye-lids—She may therefore be esteemed an emblem of vigilance.—She never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, ever surrenders: She is therefore an emblem of magnanimity and true courage.—As if anxious to prevent all pretensions of quarreling with her, the weapons with which nature has furnished her, she conceals in the roof of her mouth, so that, to those who are unacquainted with her, she appears to be a most defenseless animal; and even when those weapons are shown and extended for her defense, they appear weak and contemptible; but their wounds however small, are decisive and fatal:—Conscious of this, she never wounds till she has generously given notice, even to her enemy, and cautioned him against the danger of stepping on her.—Was I wrong, Sir, in thinking this a strong picture of the temper and conduct of America?

Benjamin Franklin. The Pennsylvania Journal. 1775.

Chapter 1: Memories

[ ]

A harsh, merciless blizzard showered itself upon a military base belonging to the human army, seemingly blanketing the vast infrastructure with a pure white and nearly spotless covering. The structures of the military base were built with impressive precision, leaving no doubt to any observer, although none were currently present, nor would they be in the near future, that this complex was constructed by the ever-efficient forces of humanity.

The complex was an anomaly out in the war-torn landscape, a speck of unaffected territory positioned behind the frontlines within a devastated province. A province which had endured the full brunt of the war between machine and man. The machine lifeforms had been unable to come within any considerable distance to the base, let alone encroach any semblance of an attack upon it.

The reason for this aberration, as there was almost no base or outpost untouched by an attack this far into the combat zone, was not only due to the military might of the forces of humanity, who were fighting a war they were all but set to win (after the initial negative effects of the surprise attacks by the machine lifeforms wore off) but more as a result of a local agent.

The personnel operating from there included the elite special forces, with the Alpha team being commanded by one of the most skilled soldiers and leaders the entire army possessed; codenamed S, an extraordinarily accomplished Officer who had dealt with several battles, obliterating squadrons of machine lifeforms all by herself. Needless to say, the machines would have had to contend with her and her ever-vigilant elite squadron in case they planned any attack, if they were not, as most had been, already wiped out by operations conducted from these special forces.

Perhaps even more of an anomaly than this base which had gone unfazed by the war, were the ongoings within it, during this particular juncture of our story.

It was December 25^th, Christmas time, and the personnel, (these units being mostly young girls), had set up various festive decorations within the barracks. The result of this was the interior of the barrack being something that was almost entirely unseen during the war; a picture of warmth, in stark contrast with the death and destruction outside, perpetuated by the harsh realities of conflict. Still, being creatures of emotions, the lonely soldiers had to chase something resembling happiness every now and then, whatever the ironic implications of such a sisyphean endeavour may imply to the more cynical amongst us.

An even more surprising success than the effortless victories the elite squads had achieved over the machines was that of the jubilation they had somehow achieved, as they huddled up together for warmth, trying their hand at cooking Christmas dinners, or singing with eachother, making silly jokes, watching movies with the limited devices they had for playback, managing to almost forget their sorrows and lost comrades in these short, almost pitiable (but endearing) moments.

S’s righthand woman; an adroit and quiet girl codenamed M, was the one responsible for actualizing these holiday activities during the period of respite they had acquired after months of perpetual combat. Her goal was to provide a boost to the morale of her subordinates. A boost which was not openly asked for, but secretly and fervently hoped for.

She was not, however, taking part in the activities themselves besides an initial presence in order to jumpstart the others, despite planning these silly moments of comfort for her comrades.

M was in her office, a black winter cape draped around herself as she was seated in her chair in front of a large writing desk, gazing down on some material that she had been composing with speedy pen strokes just moments ago.

Perhaps the cold had finally started numbing her, at least enough to divert her focus from whatever she was working on. It was conceivable, although she would never admit it, that she had started yearning for some alleviation to her wistfulness.

The lone soldier from her squad who was still out in the warzone happened to be S. S and M, having served many years together and fighting countless battles with no one else to rely on but eachother, always side by side, were complimentary to each other. The loyalty and devotion M felt for her unit and the forces of humanity were naturally high, as she had a strong propensity towards values such as fidelity and diligence in ones duties. In comparison to the loyalty she had towards S, however, it paled. (Although, it could easily be argued that both loyalties overlapped.)

Such was the ardor of her dedication towards her superior officer.

“I didn’t notice just how cold it was.” mused M, gripping the ends of the front her cape, pulling them towards eachother in an attempt to further shield herself from the chill.

Various voices could be heard enthusiastically talking over one another from outside M’s door, giggling at each other’s jokes and silly antics.

“They sound like they are having fun.”

For a brief moment she considered putting an end to her seclusion and joining them. Instantaneously, she decided against it, primarily due to the reasoning that the only factor making her humour such an event was not on the grounds that she had an earnest desire to join them, since she was feeling particularly withdrawn, but from a feeling of not wanting her propensity towards solitude bring any sort of downpour upon the merriness the others were enjoying.

“It’s Christmas. I shouldn’t force myself to do something I don’t want to. They’re having fun without me, anyways.”

What was it that she wanted to do, she wondered? Sleep sounded like the most appropriate option. M was not one who could afford the luxury of rest very often (in truth, she frequently neglected herself regarding it) and if she would go to bed right now, that would mean that time would pass seamlessly, without her consciousness. Enough time till tomorrow, where she would be able to return to her duties.

“No, that’s not what I want, either.” she ruminated. “That’s too depressing. Just sleeping through Christmas like that. I should at the very least read a book before going to sleep.”

Suddenly, she was struck by an intense shock, almost as though she had been woken up from a dream.
”Why am I worrying so fervently about what I want? I’m alive, the others are enjoying--I should be more grateful.”

She straightened herself while remaining seated, taking her arms out of her cape and opening her desk, rummaging through her belongings before she got a hold of what she was searching for.

It was a picture of S. One M had taken as they were returning to base, right after the completion of a simple reconnaissance mission that the duo had conducted together. S was in high spirits; a warm, beautiful smile on her face with the soft light of the sun gently highlighting her features, a look of affection beaming from her countenance as she held her rifle in her arm.

“I’m so needy.” M thought, softly laughing to herself. Somehow, looking at this picture had caused any sort of melancholy she had been feeling to instantly wash away. “So you’re what I wished was here right now. My brooding is your fault.”

It was an answer that she may have had a feeling about from the beginning. She missed S. More than words or even her own emotions could properly convey.

Pressing the picture against her chest as a happy sigh escaped her mouth, she was once again reminded of what she was eternally grateful for.

M stood to her feet, stretching a bit, as she was about to head to her quarter, gripping the picture which she intended to utilize as a non-addictive sleep aid. Suddenly, her door began creaking open as if someone were trying to peer into her office, as the light from outside illuminated a considerable deal of it. This moment only lasted a few seconds, in which she had prayed the individual opening her door was S, immediately felt idiotic for such a hope, successfully subdued any such expectations and then questioned and offered. “Who is it? Come in.”

[begin transmission]

1,095 days in the field.
The eternal refrain begins anew.

[end transmission]

[begin transmission]

How do we decide what is good or evil?

Why, with our conscience of course. But what exactly is our individual conscience? The term hearkens back to images of Jiminy Cricket perched upon a wayward Pinocchio's shoulder, offering him counsel through song and dance. 'Let your conscience be your guide!'. As a child I never quite understood what a conscience was, and in my teenage/early adulthood years I conflated it with reasoning, thinking good moral actions could be determined simply from the application thereof. Although utilizing your conscience to make moral decisions involves reasoning, I hope to make it evident that the two faculties are intimately related but quite distinct.

Conscience can be defined in two ways: the first being: the pressure one feels upon her will to do what she thinks is right and the second: her judgment as to what exactly right and wrong are. Conscience in this first sense is highly absolute; it is not something that can necessarily be reasoned with and it demands that you obey it. To disobey it, to go against one's own conscience, incurs massive personal guilt. There is little doubt that all of us have experienced an inadvertent or intentional betrayal of conscience before; we've all have snapped at a loved one after a long, particularly stressful day, or have neglected to study or go to the gym out of sloth. The cost of such betrayals are feelings of remorse; such negative sensations do not come from the external world, but from within.

The second definition of conscience, however, is much more malleable in nature; afterall, people could very well be mistaken in their conceptions of what's wrong and what's right. All of us have flaws in our conscience to some degree, with zero exceptions. These flaws in conscience are thankfully amenable to change through reason and engaging in honest dialogue. Now, here's where there is a key distinction between conscience and reason: while conscience aims to determine what is good and what is bad, reason aims to determine what is true and what is false.

In order to properly reason, we must have four components: facts, intuitions, proofs, and authority. The first component, facts, can be readily understood to be derived from our first-hand experience in the world. We use our senses to receive incoming data that describes the world we navigate through. Facts can also be obtained from second-hand sources such as books and scientific journals. These are essentially reports of experience from trusted authorities and form the bulk of the corpus of facts we use in our reasoning. This is simply by virtue of our experience being limited and unique to ourselves and our own circumstances, and thus unfit for generalization.

The second component, intuitions, is the act of the mind directly perceiving self-evident truths. An example of this would be something like...the identity property (A=A) or the transitive property (A=B, B=C, ∴ A=C). These are relationships that 'appear' to us. These intuitions I consider the most crucial part of reasoning and we'll explore them further in a bit.

Our third component, proofs, is the skillful arrangement of facts and intuitions so that we may determine the veracity of our propositions. Each step of the proof is an opportunity to exercise our intuitions, and while we may sometimes fail to make sense of a particular proof, that doesn't necessarily mean that the proof is lacking, but rather our intuitions. Anyone that can recall their high school geometry courses can easily understand this, as occasionally we would fail to 'see' a particular step in a proof and thus be unable to come to the conclusion of it. Failure to 'see' a particular intuition isn't due to ignorance or stupidity, but likely a lapse in attention or memory. There are too many intuitions to keep track of, afterall.

The fourth component is defaulting to authority. Anyone that is intellectually honest with themselves would admit that something like 95% of what they determined to be true or false wasn't determined from scratch at all, but rather taken for granted from authority. When we read a scientific journal article, we do not go out and collect our data and run our own experiments to verify claims each and every single time. When we calculate a derivative, we do not run through the entire proof of a derivative as developed by Pierre de Fermat, but take the given conclusion of the proof to be true. As such, it is not only constructed, worked-through proofs that offer us valid truth/falsehood claims, but also authority. It should be noted that this default to authority in lieu of reasoning via proof is not to be taken in shame, since it takes a certain amount of humility to acknowledge that there are minds that have come before, greater and more brilliant than one's own.

Any sort of correction made to reasoning are typically corrections made in the first and the third domains. Often times a new set of facts presented to a reasonable person from first-hand experience or authority can lead them to change their mind; similarly, easier, more elegant proofs can be created to convince someone that their old manner of reasoning was incorrect. Errors in reasoning that are due to an inability to see certain intuitions in a proof are much more acute, since intuitions cannot be supplied or reduced in complexity. These errors in reasoning are thankfully rare, for most of the time when they do occur, it is not due to the absolute inability to see an intuition, but rather refusal to see it because of emotional influence, or perhaps refusal to earnestly think things through. When errors of intuition genuinely do occur, argument is truly at an end for you cannot produce rational intuition from argument because argument depends on rational intuition. You cannot construct the Empire State building starting from the spire; first the foundation must be set.

Let's take our framework for reason and apply it to conscience. There are facts about the world that we use in exercising our conscience. Things such as crime, war, sexuality, purity, allegiance, justice...these subjects contain elementary facts about themselves such as 'War entails the use of force to destroy the enemy.' or 'Children are created through sexual intercourse.'. With facts such as these, we may raise the moral question such as 'Is taking human life ever justified?'. Just like with reason, we also have intuitions in the moral sphere as to what is good and what is evil. It is with these intuitions that we, again just like reason, are able to construct proofs to help us distinguish what is a good act from an evil one. The forth component--that of authority--I'd like to emphasize, for how we might rely on and trust the wisdom of Pythagoras and his theorem to calculate Euclidean distances, we similarly rely on and trust the wisdom of Solomon or the Apostles to guide our moral action without fully appreciating the underlying reasoning.

'Er, 2B? I thought you had said that conscience and reason were very distinct. You're making an awfully strong case that the two are fairly similar.' I was just about to get to pointing out the key difference, thank you for calling it to my attention. The distinction between the two lies primarily in the realm of intuition. In reason, intuitions are sometimes liable to be burdened by emotion; you either refuse to see the intuitive step or you're too lazy to think about it. In conscience, this is certainly the case, as it is invoked while we are engaged in the 'here-and-now' of deciding what we ought to do or abstain from doing; had we not some wish to do/not do something, we wouldn't be undertaking the consideration in the first place. Where there exists human desire, there are emotions infallibly present to bribe us towards one way or the other.

This key difference demonstrates the vulnerability of our intuitions in the conscience sphere, and highlights the importance of defaulting to authority when making moral decisions, rather than relying on proofs to determine what is good or evil. Hence the value of religion in the sphere of morality. To the arrogant, materialistic, hyper-rational empiricist this may cause disgust; they might turn their nose up and reject this very notion. However, those individuals are already subject to this phenomenon, of defaulting to authority rather than working through proofs, without even realizing it. It is certainly the case that a parent instills within their child what is correct moral conduct, long before the child has the intellectual wherewithall to make sense of the underlying principles. Not to mention the fact that this begs the question: from where did the parent acquire their moral intuitions? And their parents? And theirs? For the majority of the Western world, the answer lies within the Judeo-Christian tradition.

Much like the intuitions of reason, the intuitions of conscience cannot be argued with. If they can, then they are likely not intuitions but matters of opinion. These intuitions are what makes us take sides in the dichotomies of preference, such as human health being preferable to human suffering or love preferable to hate. Of course, there exists people that lack these correct intuitions and thus have incorrect preferences: a sociopath might've developed their pathology by dint of their traumatic upbringing. But for the most part individuals such as these are the exceptions rather than the rule.

The strength of a moral judgment can be elevated by the strength of these individual components and the concordance between them. If the facts are clear and there is a general consensus as to their veracity, if the intuitions behind the judgment are held by all good men, if the proof that connects these intuitions together is strong, and if authority appears to agree with you, then you may safely trust in your moral judgment with high confidence. Conversely, if the facts of the matter are ambiguous and open to debate, if the moral intuitions aren't self-evident to all good men, if the logical proof is weak, and if authority is in disagreement with you, then you may very well be mistaken.

[end transmission]

[begin transmission]

You know who you are. Nice try.

"Trust is inherently superior to Loyalty."
No more than humility is superior to honesty. The point here is that the statement is a false, needless, dichotomy.


"...Loyalty is inherently one-sided, Person A being willing to do anything asked of them by Person B, and stating that they believe a mutual "Loyalty" is basically... "Trust"." 
When you pit the two against each other in this unidimensional analysis (that is, only examining the concepts as they are applied to the interpersonal domain), it does appear that trust could be loosely construed as superior to loyalty. But something that I think bears mentioning is the fact that loyalty does not only apply to persons, but also to values and ideas. You can be loyal to the value of compassion towards others, you can be loyal to the ideas embodied by the U.S. Constitution. You wouldn't necessarily say that you trust in the value of compassion towards others, or that you trust the ideas embodied by the U.S. Constitution. In this manner, loyalty has a wider scope as it can be applied to more things. This is the basis for personal integrity. As such, I'd be wary of anyone that discredits the notion of loyalty.

The assertion that loyalty is inherently one-sided I do agree with. By definition, loyalty is an attachment to someone or something, even if maintaining the attachment comes at great personal cost. This isn't a bad thing at all, as loyalty is integral towards forming identity: the reason why you are loyal to a value, idea, country, or person is because you identify strongly with whatever it or they stand for. So it is inherently one-sided because it's part of establishing identity of the practitioner of loyalty.

However, it isn't unusual in the interpersonal domain for two or more people to be mutually loyal towards each other. The functional outcome is something that can be labeled as a mutual trust, sure, but it should be recognized that trust can also be one-sided as well. So again...I don't see the point of asserting one is superior to the other when it comes to interpersonal relationships.

Some guidance, moving forward? Keep in mind that loyalties to values and ideas precede loyalty to people; you are loyal to individuals because they are representative of your own self-determined values and ideals. If these abstractions are precious to you, hold onto the people in your life that best embody them. People are subject to change over time, so if they come to no longer embody the ideals and values that you cherish or you yourself change up your beliefs, this is acceptable grounds to sever ties with them. You are not obligated to go down with their ship. It is not atypical for people to outgrow people; it happens.

And as an old supervisor of mine was fond of saying, “When someone wants you to do right, they appeal to your integrity. When they want you to do wrong, they'll question your loyalty.”. I always thought these were wise words to live by.

[end transmission]