Martin Luther King's Quote On Cowardice, Vanity, Expediency And Conscience

A friend sent me this quote. http://www.thekingcenter.org/blog/mlk-quote-week-conscience-asks-question. 

What is the basis of our actions? Cowardice, vanity, expediency or Conscience? If we talk about right or wrong (conscience), are your standards same as mine? 

When we claim to do things based primarily on our conscience, I don't think it's a very accurate statement. 

First, do we have a largely uniform set of standards? I guess we don't. What you think is right and what I think is right, may not be the same. We may not use the same yardstick. The yardstick for your conscience and mine may be different.

Our action is based on which question gives us most jitters. Am I doing a wrong thing, is what I am doing unsafe? Not popular or expedient enough? 

Conscience (an attribute of Saturn) and courage (an attribute of Mars) may not go together. These are two independent attributes. A person may have one or both or none of the two. A person with conscience and courage like MLK (Dr King) may stand up for what is right. A person with conscience and without courage may just silently suffer or lend a small hand.

Yes courage often leads to creativity. And creativity is not always a great thing. Hitler had tremendous creativity and courage. And so did Osama Bin Laden. 

People who prefer safety (weak Mars) as the primary guiding principle aren't bad. They lack courage or they may be contented with their lot. The risk of taking an initiative which could fail badly may be too much for them.

What is the difference between vanity and expediency? Vanity tries to ensure that one's actions are noticed by others. Expediency is about ensuring that one's goals are met and the action may not be tom tommed unlike in the case of vanity. 

Expedient people also have a lot of courage and initiative and creativity. What is the difference between working on the basis of your conscience and being expedient? In one case Right/Wrong (as one understands it) guides one's actions. In the case of expediency, it's the ambition (what's good for me, how to maximize what I get with the least risk, effort) that drives it. 

On the face of it, MLK's quote seemed to identify 4 simple choices that a man has!

Abstracting this, two people whose conscience, courage and ambition levels are very different will obviously have a difficult time getting along with each other.