What are the responsibilities of conscience?

Question

I often think of the Holocaust, and the examples of the many people who risked their lives to help the persecuted. These are touching and inspiring accounts, and should be remembered and honoured as examples of courage, and indeed, righteousness. There are many other good examples from different times of hardship, too, when people raised their voices to speak out for what was right, when people acted in courage of conscience.

The good examples, however, obscure the fact that of the many who have risked much to help during such times, there are many more who remain silent, who do not act, who do not lift their voices, who do not speak out. What of the voice of conscience?

What's the responsibilty that we carry when we see injustice, when we see suffering? Does courage have limits? Mind you, I do not wish to second-guess the past or those who lived through it; I'm interested in how people think they would respond and why. Are we living in such times now?

Your thoughts?

Answer 1

Conscience affects people differently. I think the majority of people will help to end injustices because it is better for humanity as a whole. There are very few people in this world who enjoy seeing the suffering of others, be it physical, emotional or because of lack of needed material items.

Courage, well yes it does have limits and that is because people have different thresholds of how much they can give of themselves. I personally would not look down on someone who has less courage if they have given all they have to give.

We are always living in such times, some eras just happen to be worse than others. There is always a fellow human being that could use our help.

Answer 2

Jack
My thoughts about this.
If you FACE such atrocities in your life and you do not speak out, for fear of reprisals then I think you are just as wrong as the perpetrator of the misdeed. I capitalized the word FACE since the word indicates your direct connection with the injustice. It's one thing to face the injustice and another to merely know about it and not do anything about it. For most of us who see and hear about the atrocities that go on, we are appalled by it but I doubt it if we will abandon our families, work, friends to go and help these people. We do our best to carry on trying to be more compassionate with those around us and those who are immediately within our reach. We have to allocate our time and money to our immediate needs and the efforts of some organizations that are there to help them directly. SO my honest answer is that we should speak out and do as much as we can within our means. It will be better of course if we could go and donate all your money and time to correct the injustices of the world.
However, that takes quite a dedication and strong mind to pull that off.

Thank you for another soul searching question.

Answer 3

True Courage has no limits... We are suppose to stand up for what right and good, no matter what. Even if it means our death...

I am willing to die if need be... I will follow those who went before me... I have a responsibility to do this... Those who stood up against the violence and hatred, peacefully...

Your are correct and these are important questions...

Journey Well...

Answer 4

rebel if you must insist, it's an evolutionary trait of cooperation in order to achieve mutual goals as a group. extensive studies of game theory have shown time again guilt & anticipation lead to positive outcomes.

DV

Answer 5

I believe that, quite simply, we must stop bad when we see it, and work towards stopping bad in general.

If you cannot stop it with your hand, then with your tongue.

If you cannot stop it with your tongue, then hate it in your heart.

Answer 6

I think you can't change perfection, we are what we are.