Integrity

 This post is to serve as an expository on my feelings about the virtue of integrity. I personally value integrity very highly. It is something that I strive for in my daily life. It is something that I value and respect in other people. When I see a person who clearly does not have integrity, my respect for that person invariably plummets a noticeable amount to the point that it is virtually impossible for me to look positively at someone who lacks integrity.

What does integrity mean to me? First and foremost, I would say that integrity means being consistent with your words, thoughts, and actions. To state something which is contrary to what you believe is to be intentionally deceptive and is therefore a symptom of a lack of integrity. A person with integrity will be honest. They will disclose information the way they understand it to be. They will act in accord with the words that they speak. If they tell you that you should behave a certain way, they will also themselves behave in that same way to show they practice what they preach.

I think that one step further in the direction of just plain honesty is that a person with integrity will verify the truth of a claim prior to passing it on. When the veracity of the claim cannot be determined, and definitely when it is shown to be blatantly false, a person with integrity would refrain from disseminating the false information. That is to say, while it may be considered "honest" for a person to state a thing that he or she believes, to show true integrity the person would first at least attempt to determine whether that belief is true or false before voicing it and sharing it with other people. This is particularly important when rumors about people are shared. Personally I am averse to gossip. While I admittedly do it, I try to refrain from passing along rumors I hear about people which are intended to tarnish their reputation. 

Why is integrity something that is important to me? I believe every person has a differing level of implicit trust when it comes to believing what other people say. I view myself as an implicitly trusting person--when I meet someone I tend to trust them implicitly until I am given a reason not to. I adopt this policy because in my mind it is the most practical and simplistic model. It saves me the time of trying to second-guess everyone I meet and every statement I come across. If I'm implicitly trusting, how do I determine when that trust is betrayed? I follow a similar pattern to what I believe all humans do--I consider the new information against the backdrop of all the previous information I have available to me. I consult sources that I have in the past found to be reliable. I attempt to corroborate a piece of information across different sources where possible/applicable. As an example, I know very little of physics. If someone were to tell me that there is a type of matter which can exist in a solid and liquid state at the same time I would have little reason to doubt it. If they told me that water boils at 10 degrees I would have little reason to believe them--or rather, I'd need to know the pressure under which it was said to boil at that temperature since I know boiling points are not fixed values. 

But more than just the sharing of true facts and eschewing of false ones, I believe it includes consistency in thought, word, and deed. If I see someone who says that they believe abortions should be banned but then pays for the abortion of a mistress they have impregnated, I do not believe the person has integrity. If I see someone claim that a certain set of rights should exist for one class of people (say, for example, US citizens) and that those rights should not exist for a different class of people (say, non-US citizens) then I do not believe the person has integrity. If something is a right it should not depend on whom it is applied to--it should be universally applicable. Rights are rights. If one rule applies to one group and a different rule to a different group neither is a right--one or the other (or both) may be a privilege. but neither is a right. 

One further aspect that I believe is a quality of integrity is that someone will stick to their moral values. Back when I taught at Morehouse College, I often started discussions with students who were early to class prior to the time of class actually starting. This was typically a political or social topic, as I find those to be most interesting and I often appreciated hearing different perspectives from my students. I recall during one such discussion, students kept asking me hypothetical questions about "well what if..." to the end of testing certain moral principles. I eventually responded with the following statement, which I still believe and I think exhibits my thoughts on how it relates to integrity. "If you look for reasons to break your personal code of ethics, you will find them. If you look for reasons to follow your personal code of ethics, you will find them." In my mind, a person with integrity is the latter--the person who will in any situation look for ways to remain consistent with their own ethical beliefs. I see plenty of people in society among the first group--they may profess to hold certain ethical values and even attempt to impose them (by law or social pressure) on other people but when push comes to shove, they themselves do not follow those guidelines or they are constantly looking for excuses to avoid following them. 

When I was a full-time professor, I invariably had students cheat on quizzes and tests I gave. What bothered me more than the actual cheating was that students would lie about it. They'd tell me right to my face that they didn't copy off another student even when I presented them with the evidence. One student one time turned in two quizzes--with different names written at the top but identical handwriting. I was so angered by his gall in doing so that I tore up both quizzes into several pieces right in front of the entire class and confronted him about it right there. He insisted that he was simply turning in a quiz for another student--one of his friends--who had come in to class early and taken the quiz but forgot to turn it in. It bothered me that he cheated, but I was absolutely irate that he lied about it when confronted. 

I understand that so many people are turned off of politics altogether because it seems so commonplace for politicians to have any integrity. Our jokes all indicate that whether we're blue or red we all agree that politicians lie and they can't be trusted. I am dismayed at the abysmal level of integrity among our elected officials, and even among the candidates who run for office. When I see a candidate who I do believe has integrity it is so refreshing and exciting. Two examples that come immediately to mind are Bernie Sanders and Jon Ossoff. I had the privilege of voting for both of them and I'm glad I did. I would do it again anytime I can. Bernie has been in politics for decades and if you go back and watch old video clips of him, he was saying the same things back then as he says now. He's been incredibly consistent. Jon Ossoff always tries to be as candid and truthful as he can. I think the world needs more people like that. More politicians that we can genuinely look up to, respect, and admire. I would happily vote for someone who is truthful, honest, and has integrity.