Conscience and Consequence

St. Vitus

As a child reared in the Catholic tradition, I was inculcated with the notion of free will and the heavy price that exacted on ones terrestrial existence.  Guardian angel, conscience, path of light, call it what you will, transgressions against the commandments (oh, and throw in the laws of man as well) resulted in onerous guilt turning life into a hell on earth.  It wasn’t enough that our accumulated sins, when tallied across the span of our lives, would guarantee our banishment to perdition in eternity.  No, we had to suffer the pangs of guilt while among the living as well.  There was no “play now, pay later plan”.

So why such a tough regimen?  Because these philosophies were developed in the age of anonymity.  It was easy to skirt the parochial system.  Detection of sinful behavior was difficult and haphazard.  So, to keep the flocks in line, the self-appointed leadership designed the all knowing nature of the deity.  Where no act could escape detection from on high, ill-behavior cast a long shadow on ones hopes of reaping the eternal reward, particularly if they had been sowing wild oats!   God was tantamount to self-policing.

But with the democratization of knowledge, wisdom, reason and wealth, the superstition based hold on our immortal souls began to ebb.  The people, experiencing more comfortable lifestyles, that included time to think for themselves (let’s face it, it’s hard to question the value of tending the liege’s fields all day when laboring under the threat of a well place lash) began to assert their right of free will.  And, that joined with the technical benefits of industrialization; more or less put an end to divine privilege.

Technology however, like everybody else, has two shoes and the other has dropped in a very ironic way.  The very same technological growth that yielded freedom from feudal control has delivered unto the power seekers that means of population control that was not available in the agrarian dark ages.  I speak of omnipresent electronic surveillance.

While the kings and cardinals of old relied on superstition to herd the common masses, today the government (and a good part of the private sector, as well) are watching everything we do and listening to everything we say.  So while you might not feel pangs of guilt for misbehaving in your modern, scientifically explained world, it is very likely that any transgressions of the king’s law (that is a euphemism for government, I know we don’t have a king… and everyone seems to have abandoned concern for God’s law) will be witnessed, recorded and archived for future use against you.

Now, doesn’t that give you pause for relief?