An Era of Conscience-Text

Action for World Citizenship - The Great Awakening

Association of World Citizens
President
Rene Wadlow

Today, a great awakening is taking form in the world. We are crossing a threshold between our past national awareness as we now move into an emerging world society. Therefore, we pledge our energies and resources of spirit to the preservation of the human habitat and to the infinite possibilities of human betterment in our time.

As Citizens of the World, we are heartened by advances during the past century of the rule of law, of democracy, of equality between women and men, and by efforts of solidarity to overcome poverty and hunger. Now we must take together a further step. The era into which we are moving can be called the Era of Conscience. As the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 states “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act together towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

Worldwide, there is general agreement on the nature of reason as illustrated by the Age of Enlightenment, often called the Age of Reason.(1)

There is less agreement on the nature of conscience, which we can call the Voice within Silence. The message within Silence is brought forward consciously in a loving and compassionate way. Sometimes, we may hear the Voice within Silence as something very faint like a ripple on calm water. Conscience is an individual’s inner ear for the voice which tells him what he should do and what should be left undone, what the pattern and purpose of life should be. When we hear a voice from the very depths, from the inmost recesses of our heart giving us a message to our mind, we accept the advice with joy and love. We know that this advice comes from the Voice within Silence.

We have a conscience to teach us what is right and wrong not only with others but in ourselves. We have a conscience so that we can recognize our wrong choices, our mistakes, our omissions, our inhumanities so that we will not grow accustomed to them or become insensitive. We have a conscience so that we will not let ourselves be lulled to sleep by our environment but will remain alert and sensitive to truth, justice and morality.

Thus, awake to the Voice within Silence, we move into the Era of Conscience;

(1) See The Story of Civilization, Volume VII: Will and Ariel Durant. The Age of Reason Begins (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961, 730 pp.).

200