Mark Twain listed three conditions for the “ideal life”: sincere friends, good books, and a sleeping conscience.
The first two are easy to understand, and the last one is worth discussing.
Why is it best for the conscience to “sleep” during the yearning happy days? In this way, conscience, as the guardian of private morality and the gatekeeper of public order and morals, cannot be omniscient and omnipotent, never being laid off, and performing tasks around the clock.
If it encounters the following conditions, it will wake up suddenly and go to the sentry position: encounter a choice. For example, an old man fell to the ground on the road, a pickpocket was found in front of the station, and a handless man was begging beside the road.
If you think that the first case is about touching porcelain; the second case is too complicated. Although shouting loudly can attract attention, it will lead you to yourself and be retaliated by the pickpocket’s associates. In the third case, you think the beggar is Disguised, so you turn around, and your “conscience” stays still. Or, if you don’t think about anything, you just see righteousness and your conscience becomes a valuable instinct. Neither of the above will create inner anxiety.
The problem is that we are not exempt from vulgarity. We are always indecisive between “two possible” and “dilemma”, afraid of being deceived, and afraid of being condemned by a vigilant conscience. The war between heaven and man will inevitably suffer.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Titanic crashed into an iceberg. Most male passengers and crew would rather go to the disaster than let the women and children board the lifeboat first. The exception is Hosino, a Japanese man, who disguised himself as a woman, risking being recognized by the sailors and sneaking up on the No. 10 lifeboat full of women and children, eventually saving his life.
Once the shameful behavior was revealed, he was immediately expelled from the railway institute where he served after returning to Japan, and he was also condemned by domestic public opinion by his surname. From then on, Hosino text bears the notoriety of “despicable survivor” and survives the second half of his life when life is not as good as death.
Examining the pros and cons of the case, one cannot fail to realize that if the conscience “sleeps”, it is really a blessing. This situation means that the heart has the most rare peace and balance. There is no war, the tracks of the tank are clean, and the launcher of the rocket is silent. Without tossing and turning, the lid of the sleeping pill bottle did not move. There was no crime, and the prison was deserted.
The so-called “don’t do bad things in your life, knock on the door in the middle of the night without being surprised”, this “heart” is the conscience that sleeps soundly because of self-confidence.
