Much of the good fight discussed in my previous posts has to do with self-determination and self-control, with mediating immediacy’s constant demands. But the good fight is also sustained by the ability of the conscience to withstand challenges from the voices of the ethically and lawfully bankrupt. So, this post will focus on the creative and assertive power of conscience to deal with this threat to our autonomy and life.
What is a conscience if not a voice? But if the voice is not in fighting shape, disciplined, trained and practiced, its grandeur and authority will be compromised. Said another way, if it lacks the substance and know-how to prevail, its voice, and thus the voice of autonomy, may be muted or silenced by other voices for whom materially serious corruption is a way of life.
These corrupt voices are impervious to ethical and criminal codes and enthralled by (ill-got) wealth, (dodgy) influence and (fawning) admiration and celebrity. And they are indifferent to the fate they bring to their victims and to the wreck they have made of our country and our world.
Many dispute whether we are born with a conscience. Undeniably, though, conscience is alive in our grand transcendent traditions, among them faith, love and hope. Faith in the ultimate value of living life from principled practices. Love for humanity, for the products of its workmanship. And hope, hope for what can be considered our genius—the civilized and civilizing spirit.
This hope, this spirit, is powerful—a shock of recognition about who we are, about who we might yet be and about what we can give back to the world. At once illuminating our common stake in the evolving discourse of civilization and inspiring our unique voices, it fires our imaginations, productivity and contribution.
The voice that would represent the human conscience is grand. Grand in the sense of what’s possible in the world and grand with respect to the historical enterprise for improving human life, not grand as in grandiosity.
Despite the difficulties that arise from our modern interpretation of its origins and history, conscience is a cause worth joining, a voice thousands of years in the making. And it’s a powerful beaconing voice, not a constraint that impairs initiative, invention and influence. In its light, who might we be? How might we love and laugh, care and share? What contribution might we make? What gratitude and generosity might we express? What contentiousness and misrepresentation might we reject? What trees might we climb?
So much is unconsidered, unjust, unfelt, unspoken and undone in these very trying times that discouragement can seem to make sense. But now is not the time to become separated from conscience, that is, it’s not the time to become discouraged or passive. These are crucial character-defining times that will determine the mood and soul of the future, and like most decisive moments in our history, they call for the assertive conscience and courage of a fighter.
These decisive moments demand that conscience be far more than a passive monitor, that it take a stand. In these critical times, we must be strong enough to transcend the temptation to ignore our principled authority; to reinvigorate the emotional and intellectual energy to sustain our pledge to live life right up until the end with hope, love and contribution; and to fight being overwhelmed by the pulsing desire to punish the wrongdoers. Being consumed by our own punitive impulse is self-defeating, and time and energy spent indulging resentment and vengeance, or, indeed, harboring any sense of defeat, or discouragement, is time and energy wasted.
Yet, materiality is the issue here, and a response is required. The material breach of ethical and criminal codes and the magnitude of the damage and ruin it has set-off, are almost inconceivable. Even more unthinkable: allowing the corruption and its economy-crippling blowback to continue and to further mortgage and impoverish our future. What is required is an autonomous and conscionable response, from each of us. Should conscience not prevail, all this devastation and waste is destined to be repeated.
And there’s more. Not only must each of us recover from unexpected blows to our own security and hopes, we must reach out to those whose losses are more frightening than our own. But even in more prosperous times, our conscionable commitment to improve the human condition and circumstance initiates a never-ending demand. That demand? To inquire into, develop and reveal the human possibilities for self-determination, self-control and transcendence and for humane, decent and cooperative ways of being with one another.
As we all know, the voice of the ego is easy to speak. As is the voice of bandwagon group-speak. As is the voice that justifies corruption.
The poetical voice of the metaphorical soul is harder to hear, harder to speak. Very often, too often, we walk away without speaking up for it. But in large part, the discourse of civilization has always been and always will be carved out in dialogue with others, as we negotiate our way in the world.
This means that the voice of the transcendent soul is a constant negotiation, even an inquiry. Corruption undermines personhood and whether it is business, political, regulative or other institutional practice, it has no obligation to question its value and relevance. It is unto itself a narrow self-reinforcing value devoid of responsibility and sympathy. But the voice of the conscience must always be trued and its come-from examined. Nothing incarnate or chiseled in stone defines and guarantees justice, fairness, and kindness.
Stuff happens. Things break. Worth tumbles. Energy atrophies. Principle falters. And the voice of the meanest grows loud, strong, surly and violent. Given the challenge then, mustn’t we be sure that our own voice of conscience is not too sullied, compromised or inhibited to be heard, to persuade and to prevail?
All of life requires a timely voice capable of imagining other, less-destructive-to-others ways of navigating into our futures. If our finitude is to match the contribution we intended to make, then our creative and adaptive autonomous resources must be conditioned, trained, honed. Words gone unspoken and deeds left undone seem to haunt. Moreover, grace and integrity, courage and fair play, kindness and compassion are made real by deed alone. If we don’t call them into being, if we don’t stand for them and enact them, they have neither relevance nor power. The conscionable voice courageous enough to herald and sustain the soul must be learned. And it can be learned.
Autonomy. Conscience. Character. Soul. Substance. Spirit. Nerve. Energy. They’re not intangible. If they aren’t gifts at birth (energy and some kinds of courage may be), they are instilled in flesh and sinew, neuron and synapse through the effort of learning. Or by force. Or by our unique subjective commitment to see a bigger picture, be a bigger person, have a bigger life and make a bigger contribution.