The Voice within- Right or wrong?
A person's moral sense of right and wrong, viewed as acting as a guide to one's behavior is known as conscience. For example- he had a guilty conscience about his desires.
This moral sense of right or wrong may differ for individuals, for example- one person supports the women’s entry into the temple, while another person may disagree with it.
The Importance of Moral Conscience
Individual Moral conscience helps in opinion building and critical thinking. This conscience has helped humans to come to the agreement that even if the majority of the people are against LGBT rights, but again that is not morally right in today’s world to prohibit falling in love. Love remains the love, and it is genderless emotion.
The moral conscience is a very important aspect of a human being. Without a moral conscience, mankind would be no different from a beast. Below are some of the major importance of our moral conscience:
· Our moral conscience is a very important guide for all human beings as it helps humans to do the right things regardless of whether someone is watching or not.
· Thanks to our moral conscience, society is a better place.
· Moral conscience helps to bring about peace and order since many people have the tendency of listening to their moral conscience and obeying it.
· Moral conscience helps to reduce crime in society since everybody knows right from wrong and would like to have their conscience pricked if they engage in thinking evil or practicing it.
Contemporary Developments
In recent years, India has seen reforms in the matter of triple talaq, and LGBT rights, women’s entry into Sabarimala Temple. For the majority of people, the development offended but again the jurisdiction was served in favor of different voices and opinions which advocated rights from a more human perspective.
Man is not the only product of his culture but also the producer of it
Everyone has the capability to find virtue and perform actions accordingly. Thinking is needed, and if everyone is bounded with social acceptance and stops conscience – the world will not be the same place again. Therefore, the conscience holds importance even if it goes against the majority.
If the majority of people commit a crime- that does not make a crime legal
In matters of conscience, the law of the majority may not prevail. For example: if two out of three persons on a roadside involve in eve-teasing that cannot be justified as per the majority rule. Smoking at public places cannot be justified if the majority of people choose to do so because it has a harmful effect on health even for the people who do not smoke directly.
Eve teasing may be ‘fun’ for teasers but it takes away the peace of mind that has been teased. Therefore, here conscience has overpowered the majority rule.
The Courage: A Needed factor
However, being honest with one’s feelings is not an easy task. People have to be very courageous in the matter to do what they feel is right due to their conscience. Due to the socialization process, people develop conformist tendencies which are acceptance of group behavior in an individual’s action. This restricts opinion building and critical thinking. It requires courage and fortitude to raise a voice against even the majority. It requires correction and not compliance. Gandhi went with his conscience, against the majority, to call off the Non-cooperation movement after the eruption of violence.
Therefore, conscience is needed to provide an opportunity to evaluate and recalibrate social norms and customs.
Conclusion
Though the crowd has the voice, they resist, isolate and abandon a thinker. The conscience has more meaning, weight, evidence, and reasons to support and win due to reasons not due to beliefs. Therefore, throughout history, the majority had its law but they changed due to conscience for the better. So it could be said that in matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.
