You call yourself a civilisation?
I have been thinking about what it means to be civilised. I believe our society is lacking in some of the qualities that define a civilized person. I looked it up in MW(merriam webster)and the definition didn't include any of the qualities I will discuss, but to me these are the things that make a person civilized. Honor. Where are all the honorable men/women? To me honor doesn't come with fame or position. Because you are a judge doesn't make you honorable in my opinion. To me honorable falls into the 8th definition of honor in MW. "8 a : a keen sense of ethical conduct : " (The definition for honorable is better.)For example, I was watching a program last night on the Discovery channel about the top 100 americans that were voted on by the public. The choices they gave to vote on were crappy to begin with, but I couldn't believe where the public ranked some of these folks. Alot of people on that list should be on a list of people who break the 7 deadly sins on a regular basis. Or people who haven't done shit for the good 'ol USA. They just happen to be famous. I mean what the hell is up with including Lucille Ball, Laura Bush, Tom Cruise, Ellen DeGeneres, Brett Farve, Billy Graham, Rush Limbaugh, .....I could go on, but the point is that the list made up by the Discovery channel and voted on by the public includes a bunch of lying, cheating, adulterous, greedy, fanatical idiots. Is this what honor means to America? Is this what make a great American, or what makes America great? I'll tell you what, it makes me sick. What ever happened to honor? When a persons word meant something. When being faithfull to the person you married was just the "right thing to do". Is honor dead? Where are the honorable men/women? End Rant.
Up next: Corporate America and the All American Brainwashing.
posted by Vernarial @ 9:07 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Hi, I refound your blogger site...I kept going to your other website.
I'd be very interested in hearing more about what is ethical conduct and honor. What should honor mean to America? What moral code is the most honorable? Living one's life according to the dictates of one's religion, or living according to some vague sense of justice/morality that we seem to be born with--or raised with?? What is honor?
My immediate response to these questions is:
Honor is:
Being honest.
Wanting others to be happy and acting accordingly whenever those actions do not significantly go against one's own happiness and moral code.
Knowing that personal happiness which is relatively harmonious with other's happiness is best and a realistic goal/ideal.
Recognizing that we have some control over what makes us happy...by resisting certain primitive urges (for example...not allowing ourselves to get carried away by group hysteria/excitement because we know that the instigating factor of such feelings is an immoral act, like an after-school fight or the parading of a fascist military [hitler]. also, for example, taking moments to feel appreciation for people in our lives or the environment in which we live. I think that appreciation is very closely linked with true love--its a healthy sort of humility and admiration--and I think that without it, one cannot be considered honourable. It is a key component of honor.)
I don't know if honor is a sense of duty. A sense of duty is too closely related to blind patriotism. I do advocate fostering feelings of giving for people that we care for. Do for others--especially when our feelings for them are very good, but don't feel obligated to do things for people. I believe more in the statement "don't do to others what they don't want you to do to them" than "do to others what they would like done to them." Not everyone can get what they want and nobody should feel like they have a duty to give everyone something of themselves.
Being honorable is knowing that you're not always right and that the view points of others deserve some respect and consideration.
Based on this tentative definition of honourable, I don't see how any notorious celebrity or famous "great" person can be worthy of loads more praise than the average human being who is honorable.
Morality is abiding strictly by the tenents that are spelled out quite clearly in the Bible. That means, no masturbation, no fornication, no fellatio, and no giving or receiving of physical pleasure.
Where'd you go vernacious?
Sorry. I didn't realise anyone was responding over here. Fern, morality isn't solely in the religious domain. Murder is morally wrong(at least I'd hope)regardless of whether you believe in any religion or not. The bible just set down some of these moral issues into rules. Honor, in my opinion, contains alot of different "moral" standards. You have named some, Josh. Honesty is one of the main parts because some lying usually accompanies dishonorable acts. Honor, like morality, is more of a personal thing. I might think that lying to a nation to gain support for war is a dis-honorable thing to do, but Bush seems to think otherwise. I might think it is dis-honorable to snub someone who says hello to you on the street. Honor doesn't have to be gained or lost in big events. Honor is gained or lost in the little everyday things we do. This brings me back to civility.
"CIVILIZED (civil society) b : adequate in courtesy and politeness " You can read more on how to be civil here: http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=civil .
Being the good observer I try to be, I notice alot more un-civilised behaviour by people all the time. Finding people that are just genuinely kind to other people is getting harder every day. In our consumer society it is getting harder to find people that care about other people at all. It is all about me, me, me. It is all about What can I do for me, and what can you do for me, and what does society owe me. Well now I'm going on a tangent here. Next up. The evils of our capitalist/consumer society.
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