Can a Conscience Grow Old? Author: Gouya Roshan

Can a Conscience Grow Old?

We usually recognize old age by wrinkles, gray hair, or slow footsteps. But perhaps the oldest part of a human being is not the body, but the conscience.

A conscience once cries out. It is troubled by lies, disturbed by oppression, and burns at the sight of injustice. But if its voice is ignored again and again, it gradually grows weary. It does not die—it grows old.

An aged conscience no longer cries out; it simply watches.

At first, a person suffers over telling even a small lie. Later, that lie becomes a daily habit. There was a time when seeing a hungry person stole their sleep, but today they scroll past thousands of images of war, famine, and death with nothing more than the swipe of a finger.

This normalization is the most dangerous sign of an aging conscience.

A society, too, can have an aging conscience. A society that hears about corruption every day and is no longer surprised; that talks about injustice every day and is no longer outraged; that witnesses lies every day and accepts them as a normal part of life. Such a society may still be alive, but its conscience has long since grown old.

Power, too, ages the conscience when it is left unchecked. A person who gains more authority every day without being held accountable begins to call oppression "a managerial decision," lies "a necessary expediency," and silencing opponents "a way to preserve order." The real problem begins the day the conscience stops protesting.

Yet politics is not the only force that wears down the conscience. Sometimes family, the workplace, prejudice, personal interests, or even our own silence gradually erode our moral sensitivity. A conscience does not grow old all at once; every time we see the truth and pretend not to see it, it ages a little more.

And yet, the conscience is very different from the body. The body never becomes young again, but the conscience can awaken once more.

Sometimes a single sentence, a meaningful glance, a child, a person who has suffered injustice, or even an honestly acknowledged mistake can wipe away years of dust from the conscience. A person begins to feel the pain of others again, is once more ashamed of lies, and can no longer remain indifferent to injustice.

Perhaps the greatest achievement in life is not wealth, fame, or power, but reaching the end of one's years without allowing one's conscience to grow old.

For a person whose conscience has grown old may still be breathing, but no longer truly feels alive.

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