Draft from TRIADIC OMNIBUS THREE in progress
NINE
What is lodged in the conscience of everyone on the planet? By any name, the values that dictate the goals of the good: tolerance, helpfulness and democracy. Rooted in non-idolatry.
2
Values like everything else need definition. We need to say, “Why these four?” They are inferred from the actual experience and behavior of a substantial group of teenagers who were exposed to the Gospel of Mark in song. They sang these songs for some time in various settings, some quite informal. What rose in their common behavior was tolerance and democracy and a spirit of helpfulness, of mutual support. Remarkably, as these were youth from religious backgrounds, there was a strain if irreverence which seems to be actually a posture of non-idolatry and critical thinking. These were not cultists or naïve children. These prefigured the adults they were becoming, citizens who educate and enable, who uphold democracy and exclude no one on any basis.
3
Does every conscience contain the substance of the profound but simple ethic proposed here? In a word. yes. Conscience cannot be conceded to be neutral. A motivation can be assigned, of course. Conscience is a mechanism to help a person survive. It can be variously described. But it comes down to knowing what is right and what is wrong. The values deemed universal here describe right action and expression. Tolerance is clearly qualified. Helpfulness cannot be denied. Democracy, seen as the complex of universal rights and a fair mode of governance, is clearly in the bailiwick.
4
It is remarkable that the most abstract of values emerges as the root of the others. Non-idolatry in the most primitive sense is the quality of not worshipping idols. It is in a sense a guide to conscience that says if you are thinking of straying from the good values you will end up bowing down to false gods and worshipping golden calves.
5
It might be said that non-idolatry is the inner aspect of instinct or will or impulse that pushes a person to stop and consider things before acting. When we speak of conscience we are referring to a reality within that issues permits and warnings. It invites consideration of the universal good values. And it warns against decisions that go against the major values. It is the very heart of wisdom
6
To catch a conscience as in Hamlet is to be aware that evil has been done and that the perpetrator knows full well the wrong committed. A clever play reenacts the crime and the king is duly mortified. This does not result in an immediate confession or repentance. It leads to the compounding of the criminality.
7
Conscience is much the same in everyone. The consequences of evil are depressingly similar. The results of individual pursuit of goodness are a bouquet of splendid and beautiful enactments. All good and evil stem from individual human interaction with conscience.
