Month: July 2015

On Character and Reputation

This one is dedicated to my high school classmates, because they’re a part of this opening story.  For those of you who didn’t go to Father Ryan, let me fill you in. My classmates and I were often lectured at school about the importance of having a good reputation. We went to a Catholic school, therefore we were expected to act like good Catholic school boys and girls 24/7. “You’re carrying our school’s reputation with you wherever you are. Make sure it’s a good one!” we were often told. And we didn’t necessarily disagree with our principal when he said that. We just got tired of hearing him repeating that mantra over and over again. If anyone were to tarnish the school’s reputation while out and about in the local community, whoever did it would get another lecture, as would the rest of us. (I don’t how the administration found out about these things.)

What I’m writing now is where I will consider the issue from another angle. I, too, feel that an honorable reputation is among the more valuable possessions one can own. But I disagree with my school’s approach to this issue.

I think we focus too much on the external and appearances nowadays. For evidence of this, go to the self-help section of Barnes and Noble. There you will find a multitude of books with titles to the effect of “15 Techniques to Make People Like You More,” or “18 Ways to Make a Good Impression at Work and Get What You Want.” Browse through a magazine rack and look at the articles listed on the covers, particularly the selections that contain so-called “relationship advice” : “45 Productive Ways to Flirt With Him,” “20 Ways to Win Her Heart,” and so on. It’s all about using the external to manipulate others for personal gain.

For a more extreme example, consider Hollywood. PR experts are hired to help their star clients project a favorable image to the public. But all these books, articles, and people cannot save anyone from character flaws or the more serious blunders that arise from them. All the image consultants in the world could not keep Lindsay Lohan out of jail. My point? If we focus more on our inner selves, a good reputation takes care of itself.

I would like to borrow an adage from Benjamin Franklin. “What you would seem to be, be really.” I agree with this statement wholeheartedly. If we center our lives on virtue and morality, then a good reputation comes naturally. It happens quickly and easily because there will be no duplicity in us; we are not just putting on a front to impress others. This is who we really are and we can be ourselves around anyone without a problem. Goodness will radiate through our words and actions and we needn’t worry about how we appear to the countless strangers we encounter in a given day. Furthermore, what good is it if we look nice on the outside but that nice appearance is deceiving? That is hypocrisy, lying to ourselves and to others about who we really are, and then we won’t deserve the upright reputation we claim to own.

When our facades are peeled off, does anything remain, and if so, what? If there is more to us than meets the eye, is that for the better or for the worse? A good paint job can’t make up for a car’s bad engine. A beautifully made casket holds a decaying body inside. A person rich enough to have a walk-in closet for every bedroom in his house could be hiding skeletons in those closets.

When we focus too much on image, we tend to forget where our reputations come from. They are forged in every action, whether it’s big or small, that we make every day.

If you want people to think that you’re a loving and caring person, you give them reasons to believe that about you. Treat those around you with kindness. Show compassion to those in need of it. Be there for your family and friends when they need you. Care for those who cannot speak for themselves.

If you want people to believe you’re a dependable human being, keep your promises. Be responsible. If you want others to believe that you’re loyal, stand by them in good times and in bad. Defend them when other people do or say hurtful things to them.

Likewise, if you want people to believe you’re a good person, be one. Be one, and don’t worry too much about what others think of you. You’ll be fine. Promise. 🙂

On Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit: A Brief Portrait of a Virtuous Citizenry

The Declaration of Independence states that we have 3 basic “unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness.” The ancient Greeks had a word eudaimonia, which in modern terms is loosely translated as “happiness,’’ but which originally referred to the good or virtuous life. The pre-modern man and the authors of this Declaration realized that genuine happiness and freedom depended upon virtue.

Dr. Mark Anderson of Belmont University’s philosophy department writes, “The irony here is that the core of what we moderns mean by “happiness” is directly opposed to what the ancients meant by “eudaimonia.” In contemporary usage “happiness” is synonymous with “contentment,” “joy,” “a good mood;” it is the opposite of “sadness,” and like “sadness” it designates a feeling, a subjective state of mind. If asked whether we are happy, we have only to introspect and evaluate our emotional or psychological condition… Eudaimonia is altogether different. It designates, not a subjective state of mind, but an objective condition of being; it signifies, not how one feels, but how or what one is.”

Using this definition, how would one describe a citizenry in pursuit of the objective state of happiness, which is not conditioned by personal or cultural preference, and for whom morality is not a word that can be thrown around to suit the individual’s whims and fancies? After all, happiness doesn’t last long when one is in pursuit of vice. Eventually vice creates a void that only the genuinely good life can fill. How would a virtuous American citizenry behave?

If one is to make the case that there is such a thing as an objective goodness, it naturally follows that this goodness is applicable to the lives of all humankind. That is, there is such a thing as a common good. This common good is rooted in goodwill towards one’s fellow man and is not overly interested in politics. The virtuous citizen recalls these words from George Washington’s Farewell Address: “… you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.”

If the pursuit of the common good is his foremost priority, the virtuous citizen also takes to heart former President John Kennedy’s words, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” He doesn’t feel that the state owes him anything, aside from the rights listed in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. However, he realizes that those rights are not meant to be abused. He understands that with them comes the responsibility to give his nation a good name, so that he, his neighbors, and future generations may take pride in calling it their home.

He is willing to serve his country, although not strictly in a militaristic sense. He is willing to defend his nation, his family, and his property should the legitimate need for it arise, but his main concern is to make America worth defending. He seeks justice for and cares for the poor and others who have been oppressed and marginalized. He respects the dignity of every human life, from the unborn to the dying.

His main concerns are not with fulfilling his short term appetites for wealth, power, fame, lust, etc. but with keeping his own and his country’s long term interests at heart. As the Greek philosopher Plato said, “If someone says that there are some pleasures belonging to fine and good desires and some belonging to bad desires, and that the fine and good ones should be practiced and honored, and the bad ones checked and chained, the democratic man shakes his head at all this and says that all are alike and must be honored on an equal basis.”

Above all, his understanding of patriotism comes from a genuine understanding of freedom: it is not undisciplined individual autonomy, but consists in the ability to prudently choose and act upon what is just, right, and true with regards to himself and his fellow countrymen. This is the paradox of patriotism: Liberty comes from slavery to virtue or else it is not liberty at all. Freedom from vice brings with it the flourishing of greatness; while freedom from virtue spawns decadence and ruin. My wish is that we may live accordingly.