What ever happened to honor?

POSTED BY: bullhor
UPDATED: Monday, June 25, 2007 21:05
VIEWED: 2347
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REAVERMAN

Monday, June 25, 2007 9:05 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Fletch2:
I think the problem is that there is no social consequences to these kinds of actions. True if you are caught doing something illegal you may go to "Club Fed" but once you get out you get the book deals and the other perks of celebritee.

Thats not it at all. If the only reason people are acting honorably is the fear of punishment, then it's not honor at all; it's pure self-interest.

I visited Sweden a couple of years ago. While there, I saw one of the most amazing things I've (as an American) ever seen. I was walking through a park in Gothenberg with a Swedish friend, when we came across a hat that had been dropped. My friend picked it up, held it in the air and asked several passersby if it belonged to them. It didn't. So he took it, and placed it on the top of a fence that bordered the park. When i asked why he put it there, he said that when the owner realized that he'd lost his hat, he would return and find it on the fence.

I asked him how he knew someone wouldn't steal it, and he replied "Why would they do that? It's not theirs." He was genuinely confused. I also noticed that all along the fence there were other things that had been dropped in the park. There were lighters, hats, pens, and even wallets that people had found and left for the owners to pick up. Nothing was stolen because, as my friend said, "It's not theirs."

The people that found those things din't leave them because of a punishment that they would have suffered if they didn't. They left them because their culture values honesty.

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"I refuse to submit,
To the god you say is kind.
I know what's right, and it is time,
It's time to fight, and free our minds!

Our spirits were forged in snow and ice,
To bend like steel forged over fire.
We were not made to bend like reed,
Or to turn the other cheek!"

- from the song "Thousand Years of Opression" by Amon Amarth

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