THOREAU AND HIS CONSCIENCE

In his essay, "Civil Disobedience", Henry David Thoreau writes, "Can there not be a government in which the majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience? -in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then?" 

With this, he questions the validity and necessity of the system of government, law and structure that mankind has been obeying and following world over. He simply states that a man's conscience is far more important than the laws of an institution, such as a government. Hence, here is a response in opposition to this notion. 

This, to me, is an ever unanswered question in all of human history. The crux of this dilemma is the constant conflict between emotions, morality, what makes us human, and structure, objectivity, and what has shaped most law making systems today. In order to dissect this, it is important to understand the origin of human conscience. As defined most commonly, conscience is “an inner feeling or voice viewed as acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one's behavior”, and what makes me ponder is the origin of said feeling: Is ‘conscience’ an element of the human body and mind: Something everyone is born with and only becomes conscious of as they mature to the age of thinking? Or is it something that is shaped by our values, experiences, and environment, for “good” and “bad” may be different for all. If conscience be different for all, there be no law, no structure, no uniformity, and hence there be no need for a structure, a society. If conscience is different, let humans live in clusters and clans of like minded people, uncivilized, barbaric, and prone to danger like the hunter gatherers. If conscience, however, is constant, one does not make laws, one makes religions. If conscience is constant, and if the laws and rules and orders of life are dependent on this conscience, there is no law, there is uncertainty, there is no structure, there is free-living, there is no government, there is barbarism.