Conscience
OpinionJournal's Political Diary (a fee-for-subscription e-newsletter published by the WSJ, so I can't link) included a discussion of the cheapening of the term "conscience" in political discourse. After cataloguing the wide range of people referred to as the "conscience of the nation" (Sandra Day O'Connor to Robert Byrd), Joseph Rago turned to historical precedent:
When "conscience" became a valuable commodity, I suppose it isn't surprising that the political marketplace produced more of it or that producers came up with a "conscience" product that has more to do with political placement than actual moral values. Is this a political Gresham's Law?
Please. This has nothing to do with conscience and everything to do with vanity, celebrity, self-congratulation and pious sentimentality. When George Washington was a schoolboy, he entered into his commonplace book, "Labour to keep alive in your breast that that little spark of celestial fire -- conscience." These days, "conscience" is the roaring bonfire of political discourse, but there's nothing divine about it.
When "conscience" became a valuable commodity, I suppose it isn't surprising that the political marketplace produced more of it or that producers came up with a "conscience" product that has more to do with political placement than actual moral values. Is this a political Gresham's Law?
Posted by Andy Morriss on
Tuesday August 30, 2005 at 1:27pm