Conscience or Selfish Desire: Which is the Stronger Motivator?

The best source of evidence for any argument is in the trends of history. This is especially true when it comes to the dispute over which source of motivation is more powerful: greed and selfishness or one's conscience. Looking at our own past, it is plain to see that selfishness is the primary motivator in most people.

The majority of great men in history have been driven by a desire for power. Whether they were evil or not is irrelevant; the point is that their greedy desires willed them on to do amazing things, changing the course of human history. Of course, there were also great men who were driven by conscience, and by extension, their original motivations fell to the wicked worldliness by which we all are tempted.

The best proof of the strength of selfishness can be found in observation of the state of our world. The US is at war in Iraq for, they say, reasons to do with science: they wanted to liberate the people there and establish peace. However, many would argue that the US simply went there for the oil, a greedy cause. The basic corruption plain in everyday life shows one thing: we prefer to drown out our conscience in favor of selfish desire. People get cheated, mugged, raped, killed, robbed and betrayed every day. How is that a show of ethical, conscience-minding behavior?

The truth is that, though we would like to think otherwise, our selfishness will prevail over our conscience more often than not. There is good in the world, a product of conscience, but there is more evil. Human nature is naturally sinful; though we have a rebuking voice in our heads, it's not usually loud enough to prevent the corruption and sin in the world, evident in our past and present.