Monday, January 7, 2008

Integrity


Often, it is believed that integrity is simply living life by the rules; Whose rules, I have to wonder. For arguments sake, we will just concede that the rules consist of all of the rules about life (put forth by those who we will just call society) that are innately good, and when seen living by them, people are considered (by society) to be good people. We will even go one step further to include the unwritten rules, as well as the common sense rules; that should cover them all, and therefore, live by all of those, and there you have it, folks: Integrity!
No, I don't think so.
Integrity as society sees it is nothing more than trite garbage. Societal integrity allows for corruption of the most evil kind; a corruption that encompasses stealing, and lying, and hurtful deceit. It is supportive of suffering and social negligence. Societal integrity holds up insufferable monopolies in the name of success. Places like Wal-Mart and Barnes & Noble can peddle wares harvested and pieced together by the hands of children, just to bring a necessary savings to the hands of consumers, in this great land of America, who haven't cared to learn how to live within reasonable means, and therefore cry out for lower prices and more with less effort. Right, there is integrity for you; the kind of integrity that bids you quit working with any real effort, and just put your hand out. If you wait long enough, someone will eventually hand you something.
There are more rules to life that those that society call the rules. Spiritual rules have all but been banned from the general population. Rules of strong ethical values have been buried under the truckloads of landfills that are piled deeply with foreign plastics and products that formed the junk that we Americans just had to have because it was On Sale! I cant wait to see the Antiques of this generation! Already there are antique malls filled with toys and gadgets from the eighties and nineties; it isnt because they are old enough to be antiques, it is because those things are so poorly made that they wont even be around fifty years from now.
Integrity is not about following rules and being good people; true integrity is about following the rules that no one else even know about. It isnt what you are doing when a crowd gathers to support a common cause; it is about the things you do when you are alone, and the things that you never tell about. True integrity doesnt have an audible voice.

1 comment:

  1. This is so true, Rebecca. There is so much more to integrity than most people think. You said it, that a person who has integrity will do the right thing even when no one else is around. It would be a different world if everyone could be true to the good inside them,

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