The first and greatest punishment of the sinner is the conscience of sin. – Seneca
What does that mean?
This talks of conscience and the feeling of guilt. When you come home and the dog has been on the couch, the dog usually has a really long face and a submissive/guilty demeanor, as it knows it wasn’t supposed to be there (there are exceptions, of course).
In humans, I think Edgar Allen Poe explained it best in the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart“. In this story, the perpetrator of a crime is haunted by what he has done, until he is practically driven insane by the guilt and calls the police to confess his crime. Well, Poe tells it far more eloquently than I just did, but there’s a much better synopsis at the other end of the link, above.
Why is having a conscience important?
At thefreedictionary.com, conscience is defined as “The awareness of a moral or ethical aspect to one’s conduct together with the urge to prefer right over wrong.”
Like we discussed in a post about shame, having a conscience is a social creation. What we would consider a bad thing, something that would weigh on our conscience, the Romans or Spartans or Egyptians might not even notice. I imagine however, there are things we do that they would not be comfortable doing, as their conscience would bother them. Blaspheming is one of our more common modern activities that even the bravest of the ancient warriors would hesitate to do, for fear of being cursed by the gods, or struck dead on the spot!
This social contract helps act as a guard rail, or bumper, keeping the people from wandering off into behaviors that the society isn’t comfortable with. By having a conscience, which is largely a fear of the consequences of being caught, people stay within the bounds of their society and what is considered normal.
Recently, we had a congressman get caught in some activities that were considered outside the societal norm. I would argue that while he may have had a conscience, it didn’t come into play in this situation, as he didn’t think he would be caught. Now he has remorse, but that is a different issue, as is his wife’s reaction to the whole scene.
Where can I apply this in my life?
Do you have a conscience? Yes, you almost certainly do. How well developed it is, that’s a different question. One only you can answer. But like any other skill, attribute or ability, it takes repetitions to get better. If you have questions about your conscience, you’re going to have to work to make it better.
Grab a piece of paper and write down a couple of situations where you feel your conscience should bother you more than it presently does. When you have two or three (or more, feel free to fill up the paper), select one to work on. You can always come back later and try this method on another of your list items.
Write down why this particular item (activity or whatever it might be) should bother you, and why it doesn’t. You’re going to have to do two things to get this the way you want. First, you have to come up with reasons to knock down your indifference. Second, you will need to come up with several reasons why you should be concerned.
Think of what would happen if everyone held the same indifference to the item from your list as you do. If nothing else, the sudden increase in demand would push the price of the item up significantly (if it were an item, a candy-bar for example). What else could go wrong if everyone else agreed with you and reset the societal norm? Is what you do appropriate for everyone? Young and old? Skilled and unskilled? Well educated and the less educated? Will it put a stress, a division, in the populace?
Next, what could go wrong for you if you continued on this path? Are there brain cells at risk? Your ability to work or get to work? Could a physical injury occur? Could it wreck friendships and family bonds? Go ahead, scare the Dickens out of yourself.
I’ve used this process a number of times and it’s amazingly effective, but you will only get out of it what you put into it. If your reasons why are weak, and your consequences are feeble, you aren’t going to get much of a change in your life.
The example I’m going to use is one of my weaknesses (although I’m tackling it from another direction, it fits in well here), speeding. I drive fast, rarely doing the speed limit (except in school zones – kids are so darned unpredictable!).
My “what if everybody did it” self discussion boiled down to absolute chaos on the streets. It’s bad enough with the timid drivers (and some truck drivers) driving 5 mph under the speed limit, tying up traffic, but with people going whatever speed they thought was safe for them, that’s just scary.
The “scare the Dickens” portion centered on the kind of mayhem that can result from not having enough time and distance to stop, swerve or otherwise avoid a collision. People are maimed and killed every day by such activities. One of those people could be me or a family member. Worse, I could be the one who killed or maimed someone else. It’s not something one thinks about very often, but it certainly puts things in prospective.
Do you think, having read the paragraphs above, that I could get my conscience to start bothering me if I keep on blasting down the highway? I know it will, and I’ll probably add it to the mix in the near future. Yeah, I’ll be late for a few things, but that just means I need to leave earlier, right?
How about you? Have you come up with a good reason not to do it, and some darned scary consequences if you continue on your present path? Practice makes perfect, I expect tomorrow, the old lead-foot will exceed the speed limit at some point, but I will correct the behavior. Of that I am certain. Just going through the exercise tonight has already planted a seed. I hope your work was equally productive.
And as Jiminy Cricket sang, “Always let your conscience be your guide!”
From: Twitter, @philo_quotes
confirmed at : http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/l/luciusanna155042.html
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