The fate of polar bears weighs on our collective conscience more than pandas because of melting ice caps.

NPR: Environmentalists Point Beyond Global Warming

Slavery remains the affront to human dignity and stain on our collective conscience that it has always been.

WHITEHOUSE: The White House

Asia's slowness on the Net means that many companies and businesses had their names snaffled up before the Net and e-commerce entered the region's collective conscience.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Asia Buzz: Dot-coms Redux

It speaks to our collective conscience and morality.

WHITEHOUSE: Helping to Provide a Healthy Start for Children

"The Scream has really entered the collective conscience, whatever nationality, whatever country, whatever attitude or age, it really sort of speaks to that sort of existential terror that everyone experiences in the world, " Norman said.

CNN: 'The Scream' sold for nearly $120 million

In the wake of the one-month anniversary of the Newtown shootings, the country's grief over mass shootings, one-on-one gun violence and unintentional gun deaths weighs so heavily on our collective conscience that once again the nation seems ready to take action.

CNN: Gun control: It's on all of us

But critics feel that there is a danger that by setting up a stall in the local Waitrose, Fairtrade is simply preaching to the converted who assuages their collective middle class conscience by paying slightly more for a product in the belief that they are helping people in the developing world.

BBC: Free marketeers attack Fairtrade principle

There are hardly any (good) role models to follow, managers with little experience of management, no loyalty, and no corporate conscience, all of which leads to a lack of collective responsibility.

ECONOMIST: The wealth of nations