Three decades ago, I served in a conscript military, in an
unpopular war, in a country of no consequence to me or my comrades.
There was no law there that could force me to do my job, there was no
law that could force anyone there to do anything. As we used to say,
"What are they going to do? Send me to Nam?"
It became obvious to me that the military was functioning more 'in
spite of' than 'because of' the formal military rules. It continued
to function without good leadership, clear purpose, or popular
support because the average soldier, some of whom would have
willingly shot their commanding officer had the officer ever gotten
in front of them, would not willing endanger their comrades even to
save their own hides.
The 'code of conduct' many of us operated under was not exactly
the idealized version, but it was allegiance to it and, not any law,
that kept the situation from deteriorating into complete anarchy. The
word for that allegiance to a code is "honor".
Honor is the adherence to a specific standard of conduct,
without legal or other obligation.
I believe we are losing respect for honor in our society. We use
the title 'The Honorable' and snigger when we say it. We assume a
lack of honor in our politicians. It has become 'politically correct'
to belittle military honor.
Is honor important? After all we have laws, don't we? We believe
in the Rule of Law!
Of course there are some areas where we recognize that 'honor' has
some value. Like, maybe, for the military?
It has always seemed a little silly, to me, to have rules about
how your are to go about killing your enemies. However; the soldier's
primary job, even in war, is not to kill the enemy but rather
to protect his own society.
Soldiers need, and we civilians need to believe that they have, a
strong allegiance to specific 'code of conduct', because so much of
their required conduct is way outside what is normally allowed in
society. When we train a wolf to guard the sheep pens we need
something that restrains the guard wolf. The same reasoning applies
to other occupations where 'codes of conduct' are often mentioned
such as medicine and law enforcement.
These are certainly not the only areas where 'honor' is a
consideration. What about the wild wolves of society.? Can a thief be
honorable? Of course, a thief is usually outside the pale of
acceptable conduct and deserving of punishment. However, we commonly
lighten the punishment based on our judgment of the thief's sense of
honor. For example if they did not go armed, worked carefully to
enter only empty homes, or held a reputation for dealing honestly
with their peers in their daily life, they might well be judged
worthy of receiving a sentence much lighter than the maximum allowed
under the law.
The fact is that all human society functions on the honor system
or it soon ceases to function at all!
Does this statement seem extreme to you? Think about it a bit.
What percentage of crimes are ever solved by the police? I can't give
a figure but I think that we can agree that there is a sense that
most crime is not solved. And given that feeling, fear of punishment
cannot be a powerful deterrent to crime. So why isn't criminal
activity the norm instead of the exception?
Because most of us have a 'sense of honor' that tells that it is
not OK for me to steal your stereo just because I happen to know that
you and all your family will be in another city for the weekend.
Because most of us have a 'sense of honor' that says it is not Ok to
push into the front of a line, a 'sense of honor' that says it is not
OK to grab a kids Halloween candy. Each of us has the power to be the
wolf sometimes but we usually don't do it because of our 'sense of
honor'.
The decline of respect for honor is an excellent indicator of the
impending dissolution of a society, because there is no rule of law
that can force 'proper' conduct from a population. My military
experience would certainly back that idea.]
Is it critical what standard of conduct one holds allegiance to?
Not nearly as much as you might think?
Is someone who would steal your stereo while you were out of town,
or some one that would drive after having a beer or two, or some one
that would hire out as a soldier to the highest bidder, or some one
that would sell sexual favors 'dishonorable'? Not by the definition.
Of course, as with the thief, a code of honor outside the range
considered acceptable within your society will lead to personal
troubles sooner or later; However; the definition of honor does not
concern the terms of a particular standard of conduct to which a
person holds, but rather the degree of allegiance to a standard.
We have become so dependent on the idea of the rule of law that we
are in danger of forgetting that law cannot rule anything. Any law
that is not supported by the 'honor' of the majority of the
population, cannot be effective.
Honor is an allegiance to a personal standard of conduct, a
personal standard of integrity, without legal or other obligation.
The standard of conduct may well vary from time to time, place to
place, or person to person, but, the decline of a society is not
signaled by changes to the 'standard of conduct' but rather by
decline in respect for allegiance to a standard.
It is important that we instill a sense of honor in our children
and reinforce it in ourselves.
For without honor there is no 'society', without honor there is no
law, without honor there is no future!
