Truth filter

I checked the soles of the shoes.  Nothing.  All clean.

All because I thought I had stepped on dogshit!

That literal act of not paying attention to where I was going also serves as a metaphorical and philosophical reminder in life, as this following couplet from the old country advises:

दृष्टिपूतं न्यसेत्पादं पस्त्रपूतं जलं पिबेत् ।
सत्यपूतां वदेद्वाचं मनःपूतं समाचरेत् ॥

- मनुस्मृति

One must set foot only after seeing (cleared after an inspection by the eye).
One must drink water only after passing through a cloth.
One must utter words that pass through the truth filter.
One's actions must pass the conscience test.

- Manu Smriti

Truth filter.
Conscience test.

If only!

Perhaps humans have always behaved in ways such that truth was not a primary concern, and the conscience did not always dictate actions.  After all, if humans had behaved well, then why would they have even thought it was necessary to compose such verses, or draft the Ten Commandments, or ...

Oddly enough, all those structures that were packaged into religions did not make truthful and conscientious humans.  Through the centuries, we humans have been awfully untruthful without worrying about the conscience.  So atrocious is the human trait that we require one testifying under oath to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  Apparently we are well aware that we humans, including the believing kind, are capable of telling the truth, but only a partial truth while conveniently omitting certain parts of what would otherwise have been the whole truth!

The disregard for truth and the conscience manifests itself in daily life, in matters trivial and profound alike.

Maybe to be human means that we end up with dealing with instances like this dogshit in the current White House.

Truth filter.
Conscience test.

If only!