The Value of a Conscience

Posted on November 25, 2003 in Attitudes Sorrow & Regret

Sometimes you see people — friends and total strangers — pursuing courses that aren’t good for them. Last night, on an IRC channel, a fellow asked if he should prime himself for the annual Polar Bear Club dive into Lake Michigan with alcohol or cocoa or coffee. I told him that I didn’t think that the alcohol was a good idea, but I wasn’t sure about the cocoa or the coffee. I went on to explain that I wasn’t one to give advice when I wasn’t sure of the answer. He asked what did I care about what advice I gave a random chatter and I told him that I had a conscience: I could not live with myself if I gave harmful advice.

Must be hell, he said, to have a conscience, then.

I replied that when I saw the dead bodies of Iraqi children and the articles about American servicemen killed in the course of the occupation of Iraq, it absolved me of guilt because I knew that I had not asked for this.

Accountability for our actions and our causes liberates.