holosophy

Life is so easy when you have no conscience.
You are confusing “no conscience” with not caring.
Please explain?
You are equating no conscience with my suggestion that you cease to care.
And?
They do not equate. That which you call “no conscience” is, simply put, ignorance - as in “ignorance is bliss”. No conscience, i.e. a complete lack of conscience, is impossible. It is a term usually used of people who blank out the typical emotional response to a given, unacceptable, set of circumstances, people who, to me, simply dance to a different tune; they have chosen a life of different experiences. Ceasing to care is something that would not be an issue to someone who has chosen such a path - i.e. to ignore.
But surely if I choose not to care I am choosing to ignore.
No. Partly because you will not be able to simply choose not to care, you will, as I have already stated, have to work at it, and partly because you cannot choose to ignore. In order to be able to choose you would have to be aware of the choices - if one is ignorant one doesn’t even realise that there are choices. Choosing an apple over an orange doesn’t mean you ignore the orange - you simply choose the apple. If you managed to ignore the orange you would have no choice. Choosing is choosing; ignoring is ignoring.
I’m sorry, I still don’t get it. One of the rules of thumb you said we could use to test whether something was ok or not was to ask ourselves what would happen if everybody chose it. If everybody chose not to care there’d be nobody caring for anything or anybody- surely that cannot be ok?
You misunderstand. There would indeed be a problem if I had said care less about others and more about yourself, however what I said was “care less, love more”. Within that loving people would not be concerned about caring, it’s automatic, it’s a part of loving. People would look after other people, care for other people, care for the trees, care for the animals, etc. etc. etc. intrinsically. There is, and can be, no other way.
So it is important that we do care.
Noooooo… It is important that you be care.
Why is it so ingrained in me that I must care?
As a child you, like most children, were taught that you must care. Children often, and accurately, say I don’t care! And typically parents will say something like “don”t care was made to care”. They will threaten retribution - sometimes earthly, sometimes godly, but always with the threat that in some way love will be withheld if you don’t care. Often it is said “don’t be careless” - I say “be care less, be love more”.
This reminds me of how, when I was a kid, I used to worry. I used to worry so much. One thing I particularly remember worrying about in school was R.I. (Religious Instruction). I was so scared because all the other kids seemed to know all the bible stories, could answer all the questions, and I just used to sit dreading the moment the teacher asked me something. I hated those lessons. More than the maths and the history (which I also disliked) put together - I hated RI. Ironic that the subject which was intended to teach me about God and Jesus frightened me the most. The only thing to come near it was P.E. To me that was nothing less than an adult being authorised to bully and abuse children (me in particular!). Between them they crystallised in me an absolute and unshakeable loathing of school, schooling, and authority, oh - and adults, teachers in particular, which I think still exists today, and perhaps explains why I’ve steadfastly refused to grow up!
It is also explains why you so steadfastly refuse to be an “authority”.
But I’m not an authority!
Neither were they, though they assumed that role - and in so doing they became it.
And if I assume it I may end up like them, ramming my attitudes, beliefs, and requirements down people’s throats, and bullying them into submission.
Precisely why it is what you have set yourself the task of being, and being good at!
And what if I’m not?
You will have learned something invaluable- you will be closer to understanding those people.
But I don’t want to understand those people if it means being like them.
Understanding them is the only way to ensure that you are not like them. You cannot be sure you are not something unless you know what it is like to be that something.
But that means we all have to be bad in order to not be bad.
Precisely. That is why it is inappropriate to blame those who happen to be “bad” in this lifetime. Recognise, remember, that it is simply their turn to play bad. Then also remember this to be true for you too. Figure out how you believe you should have been treated when you were thus - and to all the doubters who say “I was never thus”, I say yes you were, and at some point you will be again.
That’s a scary thought.
As I said earlier, sometimes fear brings clarity, an insight, which is otherwise unavailable. And sometimes, with an insight comes a fear and a clarity that motivates and empowers the moving of mountains.
How come?
Fear can take you beyond logic, beyond rationale, beyond caring. Likewise insight.