About a month ago, I watched one of my favorite TV shows, The Tyra Show and the theme was, ‘How bad are you?’. The show conducted an interesting experiment. Several participants were invited to a party and secretly filmed with hidden cameras, hoping to catch “bad” behavior.  A buffet dinner had been set up, but the subjects were shown a notice that the food was only for the family who had ordered it. However, all of the participants, without the slightest compunction, pretended to be part of family and ate the food. After the experiment, the participants and Tyra, the show hostess, talked about their actions. When shown footage of their behavior, everyone came up with an excuse to justify themselves. They were funny, silly, and even absurd. But they showed how common bad behavior is.  Now it’s my turn to confess something. Just a few days ago, I threw a non-reusable item into a recycling bin because I felt it was too troublesome to keep. No one saw me at that time, so I threw out the item even though I knew I shouldn’t. And that’s not the only time I’ve done something like that.  But after watching the show and listening to the absurd excuses that the subjects put forward, I started to feel a few pangs of guilt about my own behavior.  How about you? After reading my confession, did you feel any pangs of guilt for something bad or questionable you may have done recently? Is your conscience trying to tell you something?
People often try to get away with things, bend the law or rules in their favor.  Most often it’s when no one is looking and the act is small or trifling.  We are the only ones that know, and don’t expect anything bad to happen as a result of our behavior.  However, that is not always the case. There are consequences for our actions. In the buffet experiment, if the food runs out too quickly, the participants will be questioned and forced to pay for it. In my own case, the result may not be immediate, but later, if everyone is like me the tax for protecting the environment will increase and I will be forced to pay for it. Let’s look around us! Some politicians and celebrities are finally being punished for their bad actions.. Of course, these actions seem bad to us, but I guess they did not think so at that time.
Even now, your conscience is trying to tell you something. However, you may not be listening to it just as I did not. But I believe if I neglect my conscience, there will be consequences. . We think no one watches our bad actions, but our conscience watches over all, it knows everything.. So, next time, before you do something questionable, how about you ask your conscience first?
By Lee Ji-woo, Head Student Editor
#301 Desk Column
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