Flex_ Do Something Different - Ben [21]
25. Conscience
Differentiating right from wrong and doing what is right.
Conscience sets the limits for our behaviours and the decisions that we make. Conscience is about bringing the moral and ethical dimensions to bear in our decisions and behaviours and helping us to do the right thing. Not acting habitually or automatically.
Embedded moral and ethical matters
One question I have been frequently asked is, ‘Who am I to say what is right and wrong?’ That misses the main point. It is important to consider the moral and ethical dimensions in what we do, and to consider where moral and ethical matters are relevant. People often make decisions, or behave in a particular way, without even thinking there might be a moral or ethical aspect to the situation. Forgetting to consider the moral or ethical dimension of situations is probably responsible for more immoral actions than deliberately choosing to be immoral. For example, careless littering, an unconsidered remark, failure to recycle garbage, acting without thinking out of habit, or without due care and attention may be responsible for unethical or immoral outcomes. Often these actions would have been different had the perpetrator thought about matters more. These are different from the more conscious immoral actions, such as having unprotected sex with someone when knowingly infected with HIV, but they do have consequences nonetheless.
In FIT Science, the moral and ethical is always the right choice. There are no ifs or buts. There are no compromises for personal advantage, or hedonism, or for a good time.
However, what is moral and ethical may be determined by the situation or context. So the individual has to consider the situation from the view of being totally self-responsible, fearless, balanced and aware. By so doing they will be able to consider the consequences, in moral and ethical terms, of their actions.
The importance of conscience – other than in the moral and ethical context – can also be seen clearly when we consider the short-term and long-term consequences of our actions. Some people may well consider it to be OK to behave in a certain way in the short term, but not when the consequences unravel over time. People often come unstuck for not taking account of the longer game. For example, people often say that small misdemeanours that others don’t notice at the time do no harm. Even if this were true (it is often just an excuse), such behaviours can cause problems later on. Perhaps the person forgets what they said? Keeping a web of lies supported can tax even the best memory. Perhaps the small moral crack opens up a larger chasm with gradual moral decline. FIT Science takes the broader, longer-term perspective as the backdrop against which to consider one’s conscience in decisions and behaviours.
26. Harmony among the constancies
In the FIT framework, the target for personal development and growth is to achieve higher levels of the constancies. In (Inner) FITness I outlined five different levels of development – from the lowest, Level 1 or ‘dependent’ stage, in which the individual is shaped by external forces, through to the ‘charismatic’ level, when the person is in full control of themselves and any outcomes.
Personal development requires developing each of the constancies to their maximal extent. No one I know has demonstrated the highest level of development to become ‘God in their own universe’, but I have seen people’s FIT Profilers measuring as low as 10 per cent on each constancy up to the 90 per cents. Being low on a constancy is likely to bring with it certain negative consequences. The table below shows