Integrity

DemonSpawn

Date:
25/08/2005

Integrity. A word from a time long past when men were chivalrous, instead of politically correct, and maidens were fair, not sexy.

The dictionary give the definition of integrity as being

  1. Steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code.
  2. The state of being unimpaired; soundness.
  3. The quality or condition of being whole or undivided; completeness.

How much does personal integrity matter to you? Do you think one can judge a person by their integrity, or apparent lack thereof?

And what do you do when you realise that you have lost every shred of personal integrity that you ever possessed?

As far as I can see, there are many choices, the most obvious ones being

  1. blame it on someone else, and go to therapy or get drunk;
  2. ignore it because it never really mattered much anyway;
  3. take responsibility for your actions and start over.

The problem with losing one's integrity, if it actually matters, is that one has no value to one's statements, or actions, and thus, no validity as an individual. One has become a medium through which other peoples' opinions, actions and intentions are manifest. Making one, in general, a useless piece of skin with no purpose.

So what do you do? How do you start over? It is the most difficult task for a person to say "NO", when they have slid into that shallow ditch of self-righteous complacency, and believe that they are being true to themselves by just saying "yes", all the time. Much of these compromises are easily justifyable. The most common being, "it's for the best".

Let me tell you something: It's NEVER for the best, if you know, on some level that you are not being true to what you believe. Every time you compromise your values, and justify them to yourself, you lose part of what makes you an individual.

And it's not easy to get it back. Sometimes, you may never be able to get it back.

I know I've said this so many times in various other bits and pieces of writing. I have to say it again, because it is so relevant, and so blatantly ignored by the ravening hordes, that it really scares me sometimes.

Every day we are faced with choices. From the smallest things like whether to wipe your ass after taking a dump, to the biggest, and most important, like changing jobs, getting married, and deciding whether to keep the baby that was never intended to happen.

Each of these choices must be made with one thought in mind: what do I believe to be right?

If you decide something that you believe, deep inside, is not right, then you have just givien part of YOU away. It's slow suicide.

I honestly couldn't give a shit what the shrinks and cousellors and "the powers that be (but do bugger-all)" say, you should never consider anything in terms of what your society or friends or family or lover thinks. Fuck 'em all! They can never live your life for you, and they can never give back that piece of yourself you lose if you compromise you beliefs.

You always have a choice about everything that you do. Remember that.

Demonspawn




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