Hume Quote plus...

For Hume, personal identity is a fiction, we do not exist, we are but a consecution of sensations or perceptions, "I venture to affirm that we are nothing but a bundle or collection of different sensations, succeeding one another with inconceivable rapidity, and in perpetual flux and movement."
This bundle theory is supplemented by the illusion that a self 'owns' this bundle. An inner narrative, peculiar to each of us, a person who we believe we are. The other or true self only exists from the outside. The person who the social group come to know. The inner narrative is in constant reappraisal as we act out of character, "I wasn't myself last night", and have to redraw our belief of who we are. Confident people are more sure of the illusion. Political leaders especially so. If Tony Blairs narrative were to collapse he may recognise his war crimes. The truth would bring suicidal guilt. With the aid of a god delusion his self illusion remains solid. But most of us have far less faith in who we are, in what we believe. It is extremely rare to find a bad person. Though many end up in the judicial courts differing societies create only few have no outer or inner narrative with which to explain their actions. Even crimes of extreme violence, if they are premeditated, are the result of some piece of reasoning. Crimes of passion, most societies recognise as lesser crimes than those of premeditation. Reactive crime can only be the result of our nature. If a Tourette's sufferer swears at you, you accept that there was no crime and take no offence. If a similar, uncontroled movement caused them to lash out and hit you, how do you respond? It was not them but their body. If through some extreme Tourette's like spasm they kill, what then? It would be no more fair than to blame an epileptic for having a fit. We have left the dark days of punishing epileptics behind. So if any act is the result of the brain, whether they 'meant' it or not is of no matter. Some, through no fault of their own, are born with bad brains. Ought we to punish them for their misfortune? There continues to this day a blame game, a punitive reactive system that we really ought to grow past and beyond. If a man has violent outbursts we must restrain them. But punish them? No. And what in the case of Tony Blair? Was it not the random chance of his brain that constructed a narrative of murderous religious zeal, not unlike the Christian god that spoke to Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe and told him what to do. It is by his actions that a person should be judged, not his reasoning. A malfunctioning motor neurone system causing tics and an inner narrative are invisible to the outsider and which ever causes the death of someone you love is of little consolation.