Globe and Mail
How about a conversation on what’s happening to the human conscience? Pick any variety of headline these days and you’ll often discover that the news behind it happened because somebody’s conscience evaporated.
How could the consciences of 13 young men smart enough to navigate Dalhousie University’s dentistry school not awaken to the way they were denigrating women? How could these students, posting on a social network with a billion users, not care that judgment was imminent? Why was there just one whistle-blower among them?
The best or worst of our collective conscience is usually behind any story that goes viral today. Who is the guardian, the advocate, the instructor, the guide for our conscience? Family, social norms, religion, school and the media are all systems that come quickly to mind when I think about conscience-setting. We need to value sources that teach us to care about conscience, because conscience will always affect how we treat each other. . . [Full Text]