I find myself inexplicably rattled when people around me question the clarity of my ethical practice (or any of several other central attributes). It is easy to think I could shrug off such thoughts on their part as being based in their ignorance of my motives, or devaluing my intellectual prowess, or simply disagreement about how to draw the behavioral lines. But actually their questions tend to throw me in a morass of uncertainty.
I find this happens especially in the case of strangers with whom I have essentially no other contact and no basis for giving their opinions credence.
Furthermore, this phenomenon occurs most strongly in matters where the same doubts have just crossed my own mind.
Stepping away from my emotional response to others doubting what I doubt, it seems likely that in these situations of uncertainty I erect a protective bulwark of tissue paper, hoping for another to reinforce it and finding instead a finger lightly pushing through my protective shield.
Knowing that I do not know for sure that I am right, but going ahead anyway, I make myself vulnerable to the slightest attack. Davy Crockett is quoted saying, "Be always sure you're right -- THEN GO AHEAD!" In actual reality one can't always be as certain of the right path as Davy advised; one often moves ahead with some uncertainty. Uncertainty may be inevitable, but one ought to hedge own's position more strongly. At the least, go forward with a realistic appraisal of how clearly you know the right of what you're doing, rather than holding up tissue paper to hide your doubts.