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HomeCommentarySpielberg's Twisted 'Conscience'

Spielberg’s Twisted ‘Conscience’

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By Mark Azzara

Dear Friend,

Steven Spielberg got it all wrong when he told Harvard University’s graduates this summer, “Your conscience shouts, ‘Here’s what you should do,’ while your intuition whispers, ‘Here’s what you could do.’ Listen to that voice that tells you what you could do. Nothing will define your character more than that.”

Spielberg apparently didn’t look up the definition of “conscience.” I did. According to dictionary.com it’s “the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one’s conduct or motives, impelling one toward right action.” In other words, conscience doesn’t address what you “should” do but what you must do. Intuition then becomes an excuse for avoiding what you must do, which will lead Harvard grads to think he’s encouraging them to put themselves first. What’s new about that? That’s what we tell ourselves all the time, and that’s why our nation is in the mess it’s in.

All God’s blessings – Mark

Mark Azzara
Mark Azzara
Mark Azzara spent 45 years in print journalism, most of them with the Waterbury Republican in Connecticut, where he was a features writer with a special focus on religion at the time of his retirement. He also worked for newspapers in New Haven and Danbury, Conn. At the latter paper, while sports editor, he won a national first-place writing award on college baseball. Azzara also has served as the only admissions recruiter for a small Catholic college in Connecticut and wrote a self-published book on spirituality, "And So Are You." He is active in his church and facilitates two Christian study groups for men. Azzara grew up in southern California, graduating from Cal State Los Angeles. He holds a master's degree from the University of Connecticut.

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Eric Blauer
7 years ago

Steven’s type of thinking is at the root of so much irrational and dead end reasoning. Terrible way of trying to encourage risk taking,my faith leaps and mold breaking actions. Do whatever you are inclined to do is a recipe for disaster.

“Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.” -G.K. Chesterton

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