The day before yesterday an exceptionally amazing incident happened to me. No, not that something out of the ordinary or even miraculous happened. Absolutely everyday and everyday situation, in which the only surprising thing is that at first I surprised people, and then people surprised me. Strangers. Ordinary, but so dear to my heart, Russians.
A banal evening, a banal trip to a store located near my house, banal purchases. There is a small queue at the checkout. The pre-holiday day always exacerbates consumer demand. Paying for purchases, I begin to understand that the girl at the checkout asks me for an amount slightly less than what I planned to pay for the goods that I have already lovingly packed in a bag. I tell her about my doubts and propose to recalculate the cost of the goods upwards. She insists that she is right, lists the items on the list, and hands the change. Such a simple Russian girl, Anastasia, remembered her name. I'm trying to be persistent. The line starts to worry. I take the check, change, groceries and go out into the street. After leaving the store, I examine the receipt and understand that the list of goods corresponds to what I have in the package, but the quantity is a problem. The miscalculation is clearly not in favor of the store. A miscalculation that will not make me richer, but will bring trouble to the girl Nastya, who will have to sort out the mess for a long time and also compensate for the shortage from her pocket.
Coming back. The line, which has not yet had time to dissolve, looks at me extremely wary. Loudly, in order to attract the attention of the cashier, I inform her that she was mistaken, and even give the exact amount of the miscalculation. She understands that I am most likely right, since I returned to the store before leaving it, but she already has other clients at work. I inform you that I am ready to wait, but the head of the store connects to the dialogue, who closes this checkout and transfers customers to another. Through simple manipulations, I manage to convince two employees of the retail network that they took the wrong money from me for the goods, and give them the wrong amount given to me. They thank me, sincerely, thank me so that I begin to understand that I have done something amazing.
To some extent, I understand the sincerity of the saleswomen. Probably not every citizen will return to the store like this and give the extra change. But the most amazing thing starts later. People from the next cash register begin to approach me, make friends and shake my hand! Someone shows me to the children and says that they need to take an example from me. I understand that I have done something outstanding, but at the same time there is an understanding that I have not done ANYTHING! In a simple everyday situation, I made the only correct and acceptable decision for me. I did the RIGHT thing, I acted IN CONSCIENCE. But why did this surprise other store customers so much?
Analyzing the situation that happened to me in the store, and assessing the reaction of other customers, I realized that most of them, if they were in my place, would have done the same. But I also realized that good deeds, right deeds, cause not only respect, but also a desire to be like those who do the right thing. I realized that good people, in order to become even better, lack simple examples in everyday life. Examples of which we previously had more than we needed, and then suddenly did not appear at all.
Quite recently, you and I discussed the issue of the national idea, state ideology, argued about what it should be and, often, diverged in the wording. Someone constantly nodded towards the authorities and looked for the cause of all troubles in it, elevating the change of the system in the framework of a national idea, someone said that in multinational Russia there can be no national idea until a super-ethnic group of RUSSIANS is established. There were those who argued that it was too early for us to think about ideology, they were opposed by those who said that it was too late to do this. Many opinions, many ideas. Justice. People power. Victory over corruption. Subsoil nationalization. Cohesion in the face of external threats. Patriotism. And only a few timidly declared that it is necessary to live by CONSCIENCE. But this is possible and there is an answer to the question of what it should be,our national idea? Live by conscience! How simple and global at the same time!
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I have always tried to live according to my conscience, but it is extremely difficult for me to explain to another person what needs to be done on myself in order to come to an understanding of this way of life. If we return to the moment described above that happened to me in the store, then there is no logic in it. What stopped me? Fear of responsibility? Not. It is impossible to prove that I put extra money in my pocket. And if someone can do this, then the responsibility for this act is unlikely to come. The amount of the loss is immaterial. Did I feel sorry for the saleswoman? Believe me, I have not even had time to dive so deeply into my emotions. In general, there is no logical explanation for this. I just did what I had to do. Without any self-interest and personal interest. He acted in good faith, not taking someone else's, even though he was aware of his complete impunity.
What can stop a person and prevent him from committing a wrongful act or any act that can harm another person? Law? Fear of punishment? Not. If this were so, then the prisons in Russia would now be empty. The law teaches us not only what not to do, but also how to act in order to avoid harsh responsibility. The law, or rather the fear of inevitable punishment, teaches that if you have committed an accident in which one or more people were injured, then by hook or by crook you need to "convince" all interested parties that you were absolutely sober. A suspended term is always more pleasant than a real one. And despite the fact that the law prohibits driving while intoxicated, every third gets behind the wheel after drinking. And you are not stopped by the LAW. You can only be stopped by a stable understanding that you are doing WRONG. This understanding is above all laws and commandments. Only it can stop a person and prevent him from making a fatal mistake. This is the inner core that everyone should have. And then we will not need ideology, and laws will become an empty formality. Because a person who lives by conscience is incapable of doing wrong. Or tell me that I am wrong and that the concept of conscience is a loose concept? No, this concept is as strong as granite. It's just that many have not yet found this very CONSCIENCE in themselves. They live anyhow, or rather they live within the framework of laws and concepts that they are trying to violate, but they are afraid to do it openly. This has nothing to do with conscience. Only it can stop a person and prevent him from making a fatal mistake. This is the inner core that everyone should have. And then we will not need ideology, and laws will become an empty formality. Because a person who lives by conscience is incapable of doing wrong. Or tell me that I am wrong and that the concept of conscience is a loose concept? No, this concept is as strong as granite. It's just that many have not yet found this very CONSCIENCE in themselves. They live anyhow, or rather they live within the framework of laws and concepts that they are trying to violate, but they are afraid to do it openly. This has nothing to do with conscience. Only it can stop a person and prevent him from making a fatal mistake. This is the inner core that everyone should have. And then we will not need ideology, and laws will become an empty formality. Because a person who lives by conscience is incapable of doing wrong. Or tell me that I am wrong and that the concept of conscience is a loose concept? No, this concept is as strong as granite. It's just that many have not yet found this very CONSCIENCE in themselves. They live anyhow, or rather they live within the framework of laws and concepts that they are trying to violate, but they are afraid to do it openly. This has nothing to do with conscience.who lives by conscience, is not capable of doing wrong. Or tell me that I am wrong and that the concept of conscience is a loose concept? No, this concept is as strong as granite. It's just that many have not yet found this very CONSCIENCE in themselves. They live anyhow, or rather they live within the framework of laws and concepts that they are trying to violate, but they are afraid to do it openly. This has nothing to do with conscience.who lives by conscience, is not capable of doing wrong. Or tell me that I am wrong and that the concept of conscience is a loose concept? No, this concept is as strong as granite. It's just that many have not yet found this very CONSCIENCE in themselves. They live anyhow, or rather they live within the framework of laws and concepts that they are trying to violate, but they are afraid to do it openly. This has nothing to do with conscience.
I began to live according to my conscience when I was fourteen. I lived in a poor family. Then, in principle, everyone did not live, the time is like that, the beginning of the 90s. But it was especially difficult for us. My grandmother, a pensioner, my grandfather, a pensioner with a hip fracture that forever confined him to bed, a mother on maternity leave to care for my two-year-old brother, and myself, at that time a worthless teenager. The head of the family was my grandmother. A gentle but at the same time pragmatic person who survived all the horrors of war at a conscious age, and the post-war reconstruction of the destroyed Power. She kept our entire more than modest budget in her caring hands. And then one day, having gone to the market for shopping, she found herself in a situation that can be called an understandable and succinct word - CATASTROPHE. In the bus stampede, a clever pickpocket cuts her wallet out of her bag. Leaving the bus and coming to the market, she realizes that she was robbed. Together with this comes the understanding that at least two weeks, until the next pension, her disabled husband, her daughter on maternity leave, and her two grandchildren, one of whom barely learned to speak, will have nothing to eat. Anyone who remembers that time can confirm that it was very difficult to borrow money from someone in the early 90s. And from such an understanding of the situation, she stood in the middle of the market and burst into tears. She burst into tears from the understanding of the blatant injustice of which she became a victim, from the realization of her helplessness and from the lack of an answer to the seemingly simple question "What to do?" And at that moment people, our already Russian but still Soviet people, approached her and, having heard about her grief, helped. Whoever could. In a matter of minutes, strangers returned to her everything that the pickpocket had stolen from her. We survived. Although they probably would have survived without money, they probably would have become embittered, stale.
At that moment I realized that laws and everything else, in the hierarchy of human values, are much lower than the abstract and little understandable to me at that time the concept of CONSCIENCE. That pickpocket, an UNCONSCIOUS person, understood that he was doing the wrong thing by robbing a defenseless old woman. He understood that he was most likely taking the last thing from her, and knew that he was breaking the law, more precisely the Criminal Code. And that did not stop him. He brought grief to people, consciously, because he was not used to acting according to his conscience. And those people in the market who put their hard-earned money into the hands of my grandmother? What did they do? So they acted according to their conscience. Because there is simply no other mechanism that can make a person voluntarily take something of his own out of his pocket and give it to a complete stranger. No court can compel people to help people in trouble. This decision is purely voluntary. This is a decision that people who live solely by conscience are capable of making. And it is conscience that is the highest measure of human actions. CONSCIENCE, not the law. Because many are ready to break laws in some small things, but not everyone is ready to go against their CONSCIENCE. In general, the day when my grandmother returned from the market after that unfortunate incident, I made the only right choice for myself. A choice to which I remain loyal to this day. When my grandmother returned from the market after that unfortunate incident, I made the only right choice for myself. A choice to which I remain loyal to this day. When my grandmother returned from the market after that unfortunate incident, I made the only right choice for myself. A choice to which I remain loyal to this day.
So, having not found the answer to the global and to some extent philosophical question about the national idea, I found it quite by accident, going to the store for bread and water. More precisely, I did not even find it, I realized that I knew the answer to this question for many years in a row, I knew, but could not understand, that the truth lies on the surface. LIVE CONSCIOUSLY. To live in a state in which the measure of your actions and statements is not even the law, but some inner voice that clearly knows what is right and what is wrong. A voice that will not allow you to rob the poor, pass by the needy, hit the weak and defenseless, remain silent at the sight of unfairness, forget your debts and promises, deceive those who trust you and humiliate those who, by the will of fate, are in your power. And this is above any laws and commandments! This voice, if it sounds in you,cannot be silenced and cannot be deceived. You just need to wake him up in yourself, and then meekly listen to him. Having begun once, to live until the end of his days exclusively by CONSCIENCE.
Imagine how Russia will change when the majority of the population begins to live according to conscience? When will the constraint become not a law that can be circumvented, but some inner core that does not allow you to deviate a degree from your consciously chosen lifestyle? How much dirt and injustice will simply disappear from our daily life! How much cleaner and brighter the world will become! Tell me - utopia? Maybe. But I am not urging you to reveal or develop any superpowers in yourself! I'm talking about what everyone has. To live by conscience is as natural for us as it is for a fish to swim in water, and for a bird to fly. We just forgot how to do it. Rather, we have lost the need to evaluate our actions, analyzing whether we are doing the right thing or wrong. For this, there are a lot of bodies that, based on the laws, do it for us. Today we are not responsible for our actions. More precisely, we carry it, but it is extremely rare when we do something illegal. And we learn about what we did wrong, exclusively from strangers, who were entrusted with those functions that originally lay on our conscience. But, apparently, the time has come to regain the right to evaluate their actions. The time has come to start living IN CONSCIENCE, leaving the courts, the police and the prosecutor's office for the DISCONNECTED, those who have lost their human appearance forever or for a while.the time has come to regain the right to evaluate their actions. The time has come to start living IN CONSCIENCE, leaving the courts, the police and the prosecutor's office for the DISCONNECTED, those who have lost their human appearance forever or for a while.the time has come to regain the right to evaluate their actions. The time has come to start living IN CONSCIENCE, leaving the courts, the police and the prosecutor's office for the DISCONNECTED, those who have lost their human appearance forever or for a while.
Looking forward to a simple and expected question. You probably ask about what to do with those people, sometimes in power, who do not want to live according to their conscience? Are you unequivocally afraid that by starting to live solely by conscience, you will find yourself at the mercy of shameless people, not ready and unwilling to give up their habits and principles? Yes, this question should undoubtedly arise from any sane person. But at the same time, you yourself already know the answer to it. Tell me, will a person who lives by conscience be able to remain silent if he sees that someone somewhere is doing injustice? This is out of the question! Conscience will not allow to be silent! Those who make a decision for themselves and begin to live solely according to their conscience will not only become an example for others, but also a person who will declare a merciless war on those who do not want to live according to their conscience,continuing to maneuver in the legislative field, finding loopholes and using them for their own selfish purposes. If we demand that everyone around them live according to their conscience and act exclusively correctly, then who will oppose us?
Such a picture was born in my head, which incited me to submit my format of the national idea for general discussion. A format that no one will ever be able to impose declaratively, from above, but which will be able to unite the entire population in a single impulse, being launched from below, voluntarily and deliberately. Live CONSCIOUSLY. So easy and so difficult at the same time. Do it RIGHT. Just something … It would seem what simple truths! And maybe our main problem lies in the misunderstanding of simple things and the pursuit of complex ones? Perhaps it is in these simple concepts that the key to the prosperity of our state lies?
Alexey Zotiev