Pleasure Without Conscience

Pleasure Without Conscience: A Social Sin


    The chief query of the immature, greedy, selfish, and sensuous has always been, "What's in it for me? Will this please me?” In a society where giving into pleasures without a sense of responsibility or the neglect of consequences is glorified, these questions are prevalent. Learning selflessness, sensitivity, and consideration, is our challenge; otherwise there is no sense of accountability in our pleasurable activities. Disregarding this sense of responsibility is especially perilous in that our conscience is essentially the depository of our truths and principles. It is the holder of our morals and ultimately the portal to our souls, thus the thing that separates our pleasurable activities with being productive and frivolous.

    Though sexual temptation today is one of the most universal means of giving into desire without conscience, disregarding the responsibilities that come with pursuing pleasures can come in more ways than just that of a sexual nature. It can come in the form of an obese patient being lured in by the temptation of eating more than they should despite the stressed importance of healthy diet from physicians. Or maybe an adult giving into a temporary emotional affair despite the affects it will inevitably have on their children and marriage. Regardless of how it’s done all of these irresponsible actions are fueled by the beliefs that are continually installed in our heads today that “We are now a law unto ourselves” and “We don’t need a conscience to govern ourselves anymore”.

    In a world where technology is a key to nearly everything, it’s very rare for people to have necessary family values instilled in them as a child because why should they need family when they have a cell phone that can provide them with everything else? Contrary to this faulty belief, the foundation to our conscience is built at home where we are expected to learn right from wrong. It’s where we learn the meaning of accountability because if we learn responsible behavior at home, the outside world shouldn’t be an issue. However, the economic and social changes of recent times has sought to destroy the traditional family and it’s values. Thus we find more and more families completely ignoring the importance of spending time with family and teaching children a sense of responsibility so that they grow up to be honorable people.

    Pleasure without conscience is also a large temptation today because of it’s glorification in media. People are indulging themselves without conscience because of ads, sitcoms, and music that tell us to do it because “we deserve it”. Media is perhaps the biggest challenge because now anyone with a computer or smartphone can “tweet” his or her beliefs be it good or bad to a group of his or her’s oblivious followers. This is especially perilous to the conscience in that it closes the gates to deep thinking or soul searching because who needs that when we have google to answer nearly any question we could have? People are depending more and more on technology to answer the questions that we should be answering for ourselves and allowing technology to diminish our conscience.

    Abandoning and neglecting family, friends, or a job is for the frivolous of mind and the selfish. It is for people who long to be independent because everyone else is just extra baggage dragging their life down. However independence is not the most mature state one can be in. It is only a middle ground to interdependence; the middle state between being selfish and learning to give and take. So then why when the issue of thinking of others before ourselves is brought to the public’s attention, the immediate answer is “independence”. The belief that independence will make you feel “alive” or “free you” is the thing that’s actually giving people an excuse to be oblivious to what’s right and wrong.

    The ultimate costs of pleasures without conscience are just as high a cost in terms of losing time and money but in a much wider scale. That is, a cost in terms of reputations, integrity, and in terms of wounding the hearts and minds of those who are adversely affected by those who just want to indulge and gratify themselves in the short term. Today, you hardly hear about the social mores that make cheating on spouses illegitimate behavior. Or how unprotected sex is on the rise amongst teens. Today, the existence of consequences for our actions, the accountability that must follow frivolous actions, is denied. And reality is, once your conscience has been denied use for so long, it is such as that of a flower being denied water; it will die away.

    This issue in society cannot be “solved” per say but rather can be made aware of by the general population, though the desire to rectify pleasure without conscience lies in having some remnant of conscience to save. It’s very difficult for a man who has already lost his sense of encumbrance to return his conscience to it’s natural state. Especially in a society that is slowly but surely always evolving, increasing in technology, but declining in values. There is no website or math equation that could help rectify the people of today’s disregard for accountability. No, resurrection lies in deep thought and soul searching; in finding the root of the issue and plucking it before you allow it to destroy you.

    Reaching a state of interdependence and selflessness is a challenge that is nearly impossible in a society that tells you that we govern ourselves and thus no longer need a conscience. Contrary to the self-gratifying belief that we are a law unto ourselves, the conscience is a fragile part of our being and when lost, is difficult to get back. Pleasure without conscience is for the weak of mind and every time we give into this, we diminish our sense of accountability more and more. Every time we ask ourselves “Will this please me?”, we are truly asking “Will this please me for the moment?”. Thus I pose to the man or woman who still has a conscience to save, another question that may be the key to some hope: “Is it worth it?”