[PART II, But who are they?]

Guilt.

A natural alarm , unique to us, a melody from our conscience - one that we alone can hear. May it have been born out of instruction, fails, tries and an interior knowledge to preserve the common good? A wisdom and gift.

Perhaps to preserve and maintain all that is good and beautiful and true.

But they. They tell us it’s a bad word, a bad thing to feel or experience.

Guilt. Oh that.
It’s part remorse, yes. But more - a siren for an emancipation.

For what should be a good thing, they tell us “Don’t feel guilty for it.”
Stay down, and swim there in your own excrement. It’s fine. Indulge until you can’t enjoy the indulging. All is not calm and all is dark - no Silent Night. And even to experience that, there is hope still.

What an abuse. We do it to ourselves.

Responsibility, an insurgent. Again, it’s ok to not fulfill my duties to myself and to my neighbour - directly or indirectly - because they told me it’s ok. I hear them.

Why? I have not formed my conscience to think outside of myself. Can I leave the coddling of my own existence, and hear the sweet melody of my conscience again?