Specifying Honor Essay, Research Paper

If I were to inquire half a twelve people at random to state me what they meant by the word & # 8220 ; award, & # 8221 ; I think that I would likely have really different replies. One of the grounds for this is that it frequently means different things in the heads of different people. For case, we say that it was a great award for Jim Smith to be elected captain of the football squad ; and so, on the other manus, we talk about a codification of award, & # 8212 ; or the Torahs of award. What does Jim Smith & # 8217 ; s being captain of the 11s have to make with the Torahs of award? What we mean, in the instance of Jim, is that his election as captain shows that the other male childs have assurance in his drama, and hence this place gives him a local repute as a relatively good participant and leader. Now many people in the universe have merely this thought of award ; and, when they speak of keeping their award sacred above all else, they mean maintaining their repute good in the eyes of work forces. For this ground, they value any office or wages that adds to their repute ; and the more their repute grows and the more differentiation they earn, the more honest they feels themselves to be.

This was the thought of honor bing among the ancient pagan people before the Christian epoch. You know that, after the autumn of the great Roman Empire, there was a period of about a thousand old ages, when the visible radiation of civilisation went out in Europe, and the darkness of ignorance and brutality took its topographic point. During these dark yearss, there was much traveling on that was non better and sometimes even worse from a moral point of position than in the yearss of the Roman Empire ; but, when the heads of work forces began to wake up once more, their criterions truly had advanced farther than the old pagan criterions of life. A seed Christian rule had been shooting for all these old ages and eventually blossomed out in the Age of Chivalry. This, as you know, was an averment foremost of all that the impression that & # 8220 ; Might makes Right & # 8221 ; is false, although it had been about universally believed to be true, in pattern, before the coming of Christ. The orders of knighthood which arose in assorted parts of Europe were composed of work forces who made it their concern to convey order out of confusion, & # 8212 ; to kill the wild animals that interfered with flocks and herds and made farming hard, & # 8212 ; to overmaster and get rid of the highjackers and robbers who made going insecure, & # 8212 ; and to protect adult females and kids in regard and security.

These work forces bound themselves by solemn vows to maintain certain Torahs which were necessary for transporting out their work, and their duty or sense of duty to maintain these Torahs they called their & # 8220 ; Honor. & # 8221 ; Hence a new construct of award came into being, and their codification of award was the jurisprudence harmonizing to which their behavior was judged among themselves.

This is, of class, a really different thought of award from that which consists of believing that differentiation before work forces is better worth holding than anything else, and which hence puts repute above character.

Anybody who compares these two thoughts of award can see that the 1 is merely a imitative imitation of the other, and that there is non necessary connexion between them at all ; for a adult male may hold character without repute, and he may hold repute without character, for repute may be either true or false ; and, when true, it is in many instances because of the character underlying it. But many all right reputes of all kinds are the consequence of clever self-advertising, and this pattern is one of the most destructive and degrading to character and true manfulness. This is so because, when we seek repute for its ain interest, we are giving to the tem

ptation of amour propre ; and amour propre is a failing and disease of the psyche. Everybody has enticements to get the better of, and it is everybody’s concern to cognize and work against his failings ; but, when our main aspiration in life Fosters our failing, and we deceive ourselves by giving the name of “honor” to that which weakens us, we can barely anticipate to turn stronger as the old ages go by.

The old knights had the right thought of award, and at that place have been a great assortment of orders of gallantry in different states, such as those mentioned in the Boy Scout Manual ; and the chief thought in all of them was to keep up a criterion of public service which would raise work forces above the wonts and imposts of selfish beasts and simply secular work forces.

There is another great differentiation between these two constructs of award: when we think of our repute as our award we require witnesss, for our repute is what we are in the heads of other work forces ; but the award of character, which is our sacred duty to maintain the jurisprudence of our codification and to make our responsibility in God & # 8217 ; s sight, is merely as adhering upon us when we are all entirely, and therefore it must command our most private Acts of the Apostless and secret ideas.

A small carrier boarded a crowded auto the other dark with a really big package of documents, and the music director, with harsh good-nature, tried to prefer him by worsening to take his menu, although of class he could non make this without rip offing the railroad. The male child looked at him with outrage and could non believe that he was the music director. He went all through the auto hunting for the existent music director to whom he could pay his carnival. This small male child was richer than if he had had 1000000s in bank in topographic point of this exalted feeling of honest independency and of finding to carry through all his duties ; and, if he remains true to this rule in all the stages of his life, he will carry through far more than if he amassed 1000000s, or became President of the United States. He will add to the joy and self-respect of many other lives every bit good as his ain ; for, Oklahoman or subsequently, every human being finds out that without this trueness to honour life can non be happy, is & # 8212 ; so, non deserving life.

But we must be careful to retrieve that, although this is such an of import and cardinal truth, we can non anticipate every one to cognize about it ; and therefore we can non anticipate them to move consequently. In this, as in all other such affairs, we must be on our guard against experiencing superior to those who have non had our advantages. Following to maintaining our ain duties of award is the responsibility of protecting the award of all those with whom we have contact ; & # 8212 ; and particularly of the weak and nescient. The weak must be protected by whatever agencies is necessary and appropriate, and the ignorant may be taught if we go about it softly and in a friendly spirit, without & # 8220 ; puting down the law. & # 8221 ; Of class, it is the responsibility of patrol leaders to see that all their male childs understand every bit exhaustively as possible the nature of the duties which they have taken upon themselves. It is besides the responsibility of lookouts to manus along whatever helpful cognition they have to other lookouts within range of their friendly relationship. But this holds good non merely for male child lookouts and their officers but for all work forces ; and it can non be done unless, in the first topographic point, we ourselves seek to pattern what we teach and so learn it with a low grasp of the beauty or usage of the topic, and without any amour propre or amour propre.

There is no virtue, but merely privilege, & # 8212 ; so great that it is hard to gauge, & # 8212 ; in instruction and being taught to understand and populate by the deep and tried truths of life ; and the more we learn, from obeying them, the more meekly thankful we shall be.