“A new consciousness is developing that sees the earth as a single organism and recognizes that an organism at war with its self is doomed.”- From the ending of Zeitgeist the Movie

Conscience

By Bruce Jue

Background:
Ethics, principles, scruples, a sense of right and wrong; these words and phrase are synonymous with describing the conscience. For me, the phrase is best because it is complete. To put it another way and for emphasis, a sense of right and wrong is a conscience.

However when one thinks of the developed conscience, wrongs are typically recognized as actions with consequences that either directly or in some way affect something negatively. And in turn, what is right becomes defined by the conscience, or redefined, as anything that is not wrong. To use a simple example, your conscience may tend to weigh heavy if your choice to run a red light results in the first motorist coming towards you to break on a green and the car behind them crashes into that stopped car. However, in turn if when your running the red light only results in you getting home faster and there is no accident, most times your conscience is nowhere to be found.

This to me is important. Important because whether we want to or not, life moves us to action. And all actions do have consequences. And these consequences have results that are good or bad; ultimately right or wrong. And, it is these results that make up the world in which we all live.

The Point:
First we have to agree that good is right and bad is wrong. Seems simple, but it is seldom followed strictly. 1 + 1 = 2; Right? 1 + 1 = 4,Wrong; Right? The point here is that no matter the excuse or trade off, 1 + 1 = 4 is still wrong. In other words, when I do wrong by you; the wrong is not righted because I felt I had to or because afterwards I made it up to you. The excuse and the trade off are both independent of the wrong. Unfortunately, these two reasons, when applied to right and wrong, are why conscience has been redefined. Maybe I left the stove on and needed to get home as fast as possible (the excuse), or maybe even though there was no accident this time, my spouse and adolescent child were in the car and I apologized to them also adding a promise to never jeopardize their safety and set a bad example again (the trade off).

Now, if we do agree that good is right and bad is wrong without exception, then this conscience will guide us towards actions with consequences that are respectful to the symbiosis/symbiotic relation between everything.

Conclusion:
This article was not intended to resemble a sermon. Rather the desired intention is positive, at the same time opinionated, and emphasizes caution as we attempt to move forward into something better. In conclusion, understanding the symbiotic relationship between everything should not be the reason we want to take care of our surroundings. This style of thinking is selfish in nature, reactionary, and most likely the root to why many of our current societal systems are abhorrent and corrupt. In my opinion, we should want to take care of our surroundings simply because it is the right/good thing to do. And as stated earlier, this right/good is often absent from our conscience and should not be compromised by excuses and trade offs.

In short and in the context of an emergent Venus Project that emphasizes utilization of technology, a sense of right and wrong should be careful not to con-science.