Is Our Conscience Dependent or Independent?

Today was an amazing day at my college. The last period was English. My professor informed us to bring a copy of The Devoted Friend written by Oscar Wilde downloaded from the net, since we didn't recieve our books yet. Then he decided to start a discussion. He posed to us, two questions. 1. What have we done for our friends till now? and 2. Has your friend ever manipulated you in any way?


First of all,I would like to confess that I am a kind of introvert. So discussions/debates make me somewhat nervous. Not that my professor forced everyone to talk. But, nevertheless, I have been wanting to come out of this shell. While, a thousand different things (an exaggeration! :P) came to my mind, many guys stood up and shared their views. In my mind, I thought about my friend and our pasts. In 10th grade, I had the courage to show a complicated brain diagram to my friend which I had drawn in the Science exam in quarterly. Later, he thanked me profusely. My friends have also manipulated me in different ways, but for only petty issues like forcing me to take leave to school (11th). Now to the present, the guys were talking about manipulation by friends. I really don't know how the topic transformed from manipulation to our conscience. I probably was too engrossed listening to them that I forgot that it had changed. Two guys were saying that their conscience is not influenced by society and independent. Yeah, now I remember, this came from 'Can we be influenced by our Friends and to what extent'. Some, like 8 guys stood and began giving their opinions,, turning into a hot debate.

I raised my hand, and sir nodded. I told something like this ," I have something to say sir. But I don't know whether I am right or wrong. According to me, when we are born as babies, we have nothing such as conscience. As we grow up, all our values are being taught by parents, other elders and importantly we are shaped by the school, where again we are taught values. So I think there itself we are influenced by the society". The professor gave a subtle smile and the debate went on. One guy (from the two guys, also my friend), a malayali native, was asked by the other guys whether he chooses to speak malayalam due to his conscience. I could see clearly that he was beating about the bush. Language, I think, we speak not due to our conscience. Then the bell went "TRRRRRRRRR".

After the class got over, as me and my friend were going to the railway station, my friend and I continued to talk on the topic. He told an amazing point. This might be a little adult-y but I am going to be as subtle as possible (my conscience). His point was this. In the teenage years of a person (puberty), he might 'definitely' see some 'sensual' scenes, which the person cannot possibly escape from. (I think the word here is) Naturally, he will be tempted to see more such scenes, because the reason is, ....... lets say, it gives him excitement (:P). The decision to see/not see more such scenes is decided by his own conscience. It may be a weird point but when I came to think about, I feel that my friend may be right. I told my friend that he could have said this but he thought that it was weird to discuss such issues in classes. Now, again that is his conscience (influenced), don't you think ? :P. Because our society treats it as taboo.

So, to conclude, there are two sides to this.
But, I still believe that our conscience is influenced, if not whole, at least to a certain extent.

Readers, I welcome you to share your views. :)