“Conscience” is such a word that no matter what language it is written in, no matter how it is read, it tells the world of humanity about the heart, the soul, being human, and perhaps “being able to be”. If something does not touch the heart, if it does not make us ache inside, if it does not shed tears from the eyes, a person should question himself; what have we lost, what else will be lost…
That's why Tolstoy rightly says, 'If you can feel pain, you are alive. If you can feel the pain of others, you are human.'
The social climate we live in today has become such that concepts such as being human, empathy, conscience and many others are debatable and sometimes even lose their meaning.
As a result of the corrupting effect of the political climate and the media under its influence, the voice of conscience is muted to the point of being inaudible, almost every individual becomes one with the world with their eyes closed and their ears half-hearing. When this situation is examined, we see that unfortunately, “conscience” is at the top of the list of human qualities that are diminished. In a sense, the diminishing of our humanity is gradually affecting individuals and societies in this way. The voice of conscience is actually the expression of our inner authority. According to Montaigne, “Conscience causes us to discover ourselves, to condemn or accuse ourselves.” Conscience is the inner power that directs a person to make a judgment about their own behavior, enables a person to make a direct and spontaneous judgment on their own moral values, and loads a person with the tendency to do what is right and good.
Conscience is the pain in the heart in the face of injustice and the first step towards finding what is right.
The most important internal motivator for preventing the intense rights violations and loss of rights that occur today is conscience. From this perspective, we call the spiritual power of the soul that is present in nature and appeals to us internally conscience. It makes a person capable of distinguishing good from bad; beauty from ugliness. Good, useful and virtuous attitudes and behaviors are what the heart is satisfied with, while evil and cruelty are what disturb the heart. In this sense, conscience can also be seen as the “self” of a person. According to this definition, we also accept that the characteristic that distinguishes humans from animals and makes them superior may be the conscience that exists in the essence of creation. Humans are always in search of perfection. The most important projector in this struggle is conscience. Thoughts are embodied in the mind, and emotions in the conscience. The situations that cannot be resolved, where inner peace cannot be achieved without reaching a result, and where the urge to do something in the face of pain is dominant are the periods when our conscience works actively.
Among the people, the expression “the conscience has turned to stone” is used for those who commit oppression themselves and remain unresponsive and indifferent in the face of these. According to this expression, there is no longer the ability in a person’s heart to distinguish right from wrong. Now, he silences the voice of his conscience in the context of covering up oppression and evil. A person whose conscience is out of tune also means that he has lost the virtue of being human. The conscience of a person who constantly postpones his moral responsibilities also weakens and begins to be damaged.
When a person commits an unlawful/moral act, he has an internal plaintiff (conscience) that he cannot silence, no matter what excuse he finds. Despite all his efforts to justify himself, he cannot escape the judgments of this amazing faculty whose voice he cannot silence. This faculty that constantly makes a person feel regret in an action that has already been done is the conscience. If the conscience says yes to something, if it approves, neither the mind nor the senses can deny it. We can postpone some of our actions, but this is not true for the conscience. The situation of feelings before the mind is the same as the situation of the mind before the conscience. If we know something in conscience, there is no other source that can refute it. In the face of evil, it is the conscience, not the mind, that feels sadness and torment. In fact, we often use the definition “my mind accepts it but my conscience does not allow it.”
At this point, it is necessary to clarify the concept of “deterioration/degeneration of conscience”. According to some thinkers, conscience is susceptible to deterioration and manipulation. The factors that cause deterioration eventually take control of the person and begin to dominate the person’s inner world. This situation ends with the internalization of the factors and the suppression of the voice of conscience. Now, the person has lost the “conscience” ability that is inherent in him/her and has become a soulless machine that acts in accordance with his/her ego and cannot think of anything other than his/her own freedom and interests. In other words, he/she has lost his/her humanity and has gained a mechanical identity.
One of the concepts that stand out in the human and political climate we live in is “social conscience”. This concept, which is called “public opinion” when we understand it, expresses the sum or majority of the conscientious judgments of the individuals who make up the society. The main thing is not only to build personal consciences, but also to create a climate and spirit of conscience on a social level. This should be the goal of a virtuous society. Unfortunately, today; the number of people who can feel, who shed tears for the troubles of others, who listen to their hearts not their egos, who try to understand before passing judgment, who avoid harming, and who can think of listening to social conscience is gradually decreasing.
At this point where there is a terrible degeneration and social disintegration, social conscience is of great importance. Because remaining silent about what is being done causes people with an individual conscience that does not work properly or who have completely lost this ability to form a social conscience on which hopes are pinned, and there is no longer any talk of a social conscience. Thus, everyone is directed to watch what is happening with their eyes closed, their ears deaf and their tongues mute.
The “Conscience Foundation” is exactly the product of such an atmosphere. It is an institutional structure whose foundation was laid in order to present a conscientious stance against the evils and oppressions that are taking place both in the world and in our country. Our aim is to increase goodness and beauty; to reduce and end evils and oppressions; to bring together the lively consciences that have been scattered until now, and the defenders of rights and justice, and to form a common social conscience. To present a determined and resolute stance for the elimination of evils and oppressions in the world.
History has witnessed such examples, although rare. The struggles on earth are the struggles of the good and the bad; the defenders of justice and the oppressors; the honest and the dishonorable. It is the separation of those whose consciences are alive from those whose consciences have turned to stone.
The Conscience Foundation is, in a sense, a candidate to be the conscience and arbiter of this country’s and future world peace. We invite all conscientious people who intend to contribute to the most sacred struggle on earth to gather under the roof of this foundation; in order to leave an unforgettable memory, a story for your children and grandchildren…
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