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Food for Thought

Thus Conscience Doth Make Crickets of Us All

Tim Madigan is startled by the form of the angel on his shoulder.

Take the straight and narrow path
and if you start to slide,
give a little whistle!
Give a little whistle!
And always let your conscience be your guide.
– As sung by Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney’s Pinocchio

Ethicists such as Thomas Aquinas, Joseph Butler and Immanuel Kant grappled mightily with the question of the nature of our conscience – that inner voice which tells us when we are acting rightly or wrongly. But for all their learned writings, none of these wise gentlemen have had as major an impact on the popular understanding of the conscience as Walt Disney, who gave us its best known representative – Jiminy Cricket, the dapper, devil-may-care bug with a song in his heart who is always willing to give advice to his pal Pinocchio on proper behavior. Voiced by the beloved Cliff Edwards (known to all the world as ‘Ukelele Ike’), Jiminy is the kind of friend anyone would long to have. 2010 will mark the 70th anniversary of the film, which has just been released in a spiffy 2-DVD Platinum Edition to mark the occasion.

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