An Examination of Conscience

[NanceGreggs]

Sometimes the answer to a question is so simple, it somehow fails to be noticed and appreciated. People tend to over-analyze the most complicated aspects of a problem and, in so doing, fail to discern the obvious cause of the undesirable effect.

In my most humble opinion, the state we now find ourselves in – as a nation, and as global citizens – is simply matter of a lack of individual conscience.

I don’t know where our consciences have fled – or why they have been suppressed, ignored, or stomped out of existence. But the fact remains that if that part of ourselves that gives us pause to think about the impact of our actions on others, which in turn leads us to conduct ourselves accordingly, was still fully operational, we wouldn’t be where we are right now. And where we are is not a very good place.

If the CEO of a corporation who accepts millions of dollars in annual compensation had a conscience, he couldn’t sleep at night knowing his private jet, his yacht, his four private residences, and his child’s $250,000 Sweet Sixteen party meant that his hard-working employees were hardly scraping by.

If insurance adjustors who routinely dismiss healthcare claims submitted by the sick and liable-to-die without coverage had a conscience, they wouldn’t be able to apply a “DENIED” stamp to an application for life-saving treatment, and then go about their daily lives without so much as a second thought.

If bankers had a conscience, they wouldn’t talk their customers into taking on mortgages they can’t possibly afford, or loan obligations they have no hope of ever satisfying, nor extricating themselves from.

If credit card employees had a conscience, they wouldn’t rope unsuspecting consumers into believing that the payment arrangements and interest rates they’ve agreed to won’t be changed on a whim, in order to extract money from those least able to afford it.

If politicians had a conscience, they wouldn’t lie to their constituents, and misrepresent the facts in an effort to gain a “win” for their Party at the expense of a “loss” when it comes to the best interests of their fellow citizens, and their country as a whole.

If military masterminds had a conscience, they wouldn’t condone torture, no less encourage its use or actively participate in its application.

If the current crop of so-called media “journalists” had a conscience, they wouldn’t regularly edit film footage, prattle on and on about non-news stories, nor ignore the truly important news items of the day in an ongoing effort to misinform the public they allegedly serve.

If the military strategists who opine on the necessity for war and oppression had a conscience, they couldn’t watch their own children sleeping peacefully while dismissing other children being maimed, mutilated, orphaned or killed as “collateral damage” and nothing more.

If the religious zealots who harass (or worse) those who don’t share their ideology – the gays and lesbians, the abortion-providers – had a conscience, they couldn’t demean their fellow men and women, and still delude themselves that are doing God’s work.

If the right-wing fanatics who host TV and radio shows that reach wide audiences had a conscience, they wouldn’t incite divisiveness and violence, and encourage the citizenry to see their fellow Americans as worthy of scorn – and the attendant consequences thereof.

This IS, as simplistic as it may sound, the bottom line, the effect directly resultant from an oh-so-obvious cause: it is the lack of a conscience that underlies our national woes, and will lead to continued untold suffering here at home, and throughout the world.

I don’t know where this trend started – this notion that not having a conscience was something to be strived-for, applauded, encouraged – and, in the end, hailed as some kind of enviable state of being.

What I do know is that until this trend is reversed, and those willing to stand up and say this cannot stand are treated as the heroes they are, instead of the rock-the-boat dissidents they are scorned as, we are in a shitload of trouble.

This may strike some as an inappropriate message on Thanksgiving. But I, for one, think this holiday is more than an appropriate time to speak up.

Today I more than thankful for the whistleblowers, the ordinary citizens who aren’t afraid to expose the wrong-doers in their midst – the honest employees, the watchful voters, the bloggers who seek out the truth, the website posters who expose corruption – those who have a conscience and are not only unashamed of it, but take pride in it.

I am grateful to all of you out there who raised your children to have a conscience, those who encourage your friends, coworkers, fellow Americans to see their sense of conscience as something to be flaunted rather than hidden, those who fight the good fight every day not because it is popular or in vogue, but because it is people of conscience who remain, simply by virtue of being who they are, the hope of the world.

As dire as I may sound, I am actually full of optimism tonight – because I know that those of good conscience will, in the end, prevail.