CONSCIENCE: What is it & Who Does it Serve?

By John Maerz BA LMT

     Conscience is a word that comes from the Latin com- and scire or to know with. Webster’s portrays it as an inner sense of what is right or wrong in one's conduct or motives, impelling one toward right action. The word has its written origins in Middle English from 1175-1225. Aside from papal edicts, the Magna Carta in 1215 was probably the first manifestation of a conscious attempt to put a code of behavior into writing for other than those within the religious context which largely dominated the thinking of the time. For those who are astrologers, this is the beginning of a new 245 year era of Pluto’s cyclic sojourn beginning in Capricorn.

     To have a clear understanding of conscience we must also have a clear understanding of what constitutes right and wrong; the basis of morals or the awareness and capacity to distinguish between the two. The understanding and capacity itself must be relative. That is, if ten people say a particular behavior is acceptable, then for those ten people it is. However, if a different ten people say the same behavior is not acceptable, and for them this is so, who is to say which is “right?” If we change the numbers, say one million say the behavior is right and two million say it’s wrong, we are now faced with decisions to make. Namely, which group do we feel is “right” and which group do we want to belong to, or more appropriately put in a moral sense, which group will we accept or be accepted by? Generally, when we don’t follow the rules of a majority, we are either ostracized and/or punished or simply must find another group with a “morally” better fit. This is true whether the group consists of a nation or a neighborhood club. When right or wrong becomes connected to a political or religious group, difficulties may arise for those who live within the environment and see things differently. This is evident by the casualties resulting from the actions of apartheid, ethnic cleansing and the Spanish Inquisition, just to name a few.

     Since right or wrong is determined by a group, whether large or small, it follows to reason that the understanding of “right or wrong” must be learned. Of course we do grow up with an inner feeling of what we feel is right or wrong but that is learned also, whether in this life or previous ones. The key is to understand that morals are learned and that, essentially, our super ego is our conscience, or internal governor, that adds morals into memory and integrates them with our experience producing our beliefs and attitudes. Then, depending on our wants, needs, chosen beliefs and relationship with spiritual, social and political authority, we decide what is right or wrong for us and what we will or won’t follow. As the group gets larger, the rules become vaguer as they must accommodate a larger diversity of perspectives and understandings. The smaller groups are likely to have more experiences in common, so their rules may reflect a more defined specificity.

     So far, we can see that our learned conscience loosely serves the needs, preferences and/or desires of a group, regardless of the size. Just like we have a language that allows everyone to communicate their understanding to each other, we also have morals, embedded in our conscience, that keep us in sync with the actions of others in our “morally oriented” group. This generally provides an understandable social order for the group to live by creating a feeling of security, safety and sense of belonging for all who acquiesce.

     We all are social creatures to some extent. Those with an interior locus of control, or are proactive, can live further outside the group confines and remain comfortable within their solitude and individuality. Emotionally, they appear to be more self sufficient. Those who answer to an exterior locus of control, or are more reactive, will live more within the confines of expected group behaviors to maintain an advantage of support and acceptance. Emotionally, they appear to be more co-dependent. One could argue that those who have an internal locus of control have less need of group belonging but where would their innovativeness and creativity be applied if not for the needs and benefits of the group?

     Having a healthy set of limits keeps us human. We constantly redefine ourselves by how far we can go before we surpass our own capabilities. Humiliation may ensure after surpassing those limits but we generally know that it is only circumstantial and not a reflection of our personal worth. In this way, conscience works with humiliation to keep us aware of our limits and lets us know that perceived transgressions are not a reflection of personal inadequacies but that we have only misjudged the present circumstances and must monitor our future efforts with better scrutiny. However, those of us who have never had the opportunity of developing a sense of independence in our younger years run the risk of accepting the presently occurring humiliation as a judgment of our overall personal worth. We then feel inferior to what is considered normal or worthy of respect. The humiliation then becomes toxic and we live the remainder of our life compensating and covering up assumed inadequacies.

     So, in instilling a sense of conscience in our young, it is important to emphasize that it is a guideline for knowing what behaviors our peers and elders know how to respond to and are accustomed to. The moment it becomes a vehicle for instilling fear of having support or belonging withheld, for lack of obedience to those rules, it becomes abuse and creates a toxic humiliation and a sense of inferiority. Those who attempt to assassinate autonomy in others come from a place of feeling inferior; victims of prior abuse and manipulation themselves. The key is to teach our young that it is better to voluntarily respond to what our conscience requires of us from an independent perspective, thereby, developing a sense of autonomy and self respect.

     So, what then is conscience and who does it serve? It is an externally  agreed upon  learned set of rules or morals that allows us to establish specific expected group behaviors to be followed in order to continue to live comfortably as part of the group. Externally, it gives the group known parameters to live within in order to establish a sense of security and belonging. Internally, it provides the individual with an understanding of the acceptable limits of his creativity and individuality within the group environment and, ideally, develops a sense of autonomy and self respect whether within or without that group.