<p>Is conscience a more powerful motivator than money fame or power?
BB PRACTICE TEST 5 ESSAY
Countless times in the history of humanity, the theory that conscience is more powerful than money, fame, and power has been proven true. In both instances in history, and works of fiction, conscience is deemed the dominant motivator.</p>
<p>In the American Revolution, their was no paid, standing army representing the patriots, unlike the British, whose well regulated army was the formidable in the world. Every patriot soldier was a volunteer in the revolution. And their pay was either useless fiat currency, or nothing at all. The patriot soldiers were motivated by a greater cause than money or power: their conscience, and their morality. They were motivated by the words of Jefferson and Paine, that all men have unalienable god-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that any government that tries to stifle these rights had to be abolished. Their moral motivation led them to triumph over the British oppressors who fought not for their conscience, but for pay and power.</p>
<p>In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, an African American named Tom Robinson is accused of raping a white woman in 1930s Alabama. Though the evidence against him is flimsy at best, nearly the entire community presumes his guilt. His lawyer is a man named Atticus Finch, a man who loses the respect of his neighbors and collegues to defend a man he knows in his conscience is innocent. He rejects pay from Tom Robinsons family, as he knows they are too poor to pay him. He tarnishes his entire reputation to defend Tom Robinson because he knows in his conscience that it is the only morally right thing to do.</p>
<p>Money, fame, and power, though powerful motivators of human behavior, are not nearly as powerful a motivator as a persons conscience, whether in defending innocence, or fighting for freedom.</p>
<p>Much obliged</p>