Glancing Into The Dark

In the name of trade and the belief in commerce all actions taken are warranted. The destruction of land, flora, fauna, and community are all necessary to the constructs of profit. Dehumanizing the natives (savages) is all part of the process of conquest. They are merely animals to perform tasks that other civilized men would not undertake. Also through this belief the “savages” do not have rights to anything they are merely tools. And as long as individuals in the employ of the company hold this belief to be true, they will be able to fulfill their duties without a feeling of remorse. But in the process of being immersed in this insanity, the darkness one can also lose themselves in ways never before understood.

Those innate desires, the dark that is within us all begins to come out and take over and we begin to behave in strange ways. Folding reality into a construct that will give us permission for the actions we take. Mr. Kurtz is an example of this idea. He worked for the company and was placed in a secluded spot whereby he began to manipulate the “savages” to do his will. He built himself up to them as a god or a higher being with power over them, and eventually with himself believing in this idea. The ivory was his. The river was his. The people were his. It all belonged to him. Believing himself to be a benevolent leader over all that he saw. And therein lays the belief that “something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to."