“COURAGE WITHOUT CONSCIENCE IS A WILD BEAST”

It is often said that in order to be successful in this world man has to be ruthless. The word ruth means kind and so ruthless can be a very cruel word. 

There are those of us who are willing to sacrifice everything to reach where we want to be, for those watching from the sidelines this can seem brave, fearless, heroic even. Being brave and taking chances is admirable, but the line between bravado and ruthlessness is sometimes so fine we miss it and step over it without even noticing. Is crossing the line permissible if the end excuses the means, if at the end we reach the goal we have worked so hard and sacrificed so much for and ended up where we want to be?

Someone once wrote conscience is what hurts when everything else feels so good, can we really be proud of our achievements when they came at any cost. Gandhi thought conscience was as big a dictator of how much we have really achieved as pride, saying “The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still small voice within”

Many successful men and women live life as a race and they see personal success as the reward for crossing the line first, they often achieve this at any cost and without looking back. Neil Peart wrote and sang about living for yourself “There’s no one else more worth living for, begging hands and bleeding hearts will only cry out for more “and there is a sad sense of reason in this.  

Any actions can be justified as a means to an end, wars have been won, evil eradicated and empires built using this philosophy. History has shown it is impossible to win a war by being kind to the opposing army, but showing compassion in victory is what separates good men from tyrants and what in the end brings about a lasting peace. Life is often our own personal war and in the fight to succeed we don’t have time to notice others who fall by the wayside. Can we truly claim success as ours though if it comes at a cost to others? There is a Chinese proverb that says “Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.”  All those we treat with kindness on our way up could be the ones holding out a blanket if we find yourself falling back down again. 

Title quote by Robert Green Ingersoll