Integrity - do you have it?
The word integrity is very easily watered down, depending on what agenda it serves to soften up the edges of a word which represents an absolute, not a gray zone.
Let’s look at what Noah Webster, of Websters dictionaries, who defined the word back in 1828 in his American Dictionary of the English Language as follows:
“Integrity comes from integer, which is itself defined as “The whole of any thing.”
“Wholeness; entireness; unbroken state” … “The entire, unimpaired state of anything, particularly of the mind, moral soundness or purity; incorruptness, uprightness; honesty.”
The concept has lost considerable luster over the years when one considers corruption weaving our culture in politics, where politicians make vast promises in their campaign speeches which they do not intend to accomplish; where men in power abuse it to kill innocent children and civilians and hide behind religious ideology and pretense to do it; corporate greed and dishonesty, and even the middle of the road culture, where, for instance today, watching women and young girls being sexually abused in modern day porn, now dubbed “adult entertainment” an “acceptable” euphemism for an industry that manipulates people for money and has become normalized and acceptable in our culture, or where insane and narcissistic men can run for Presidency and be voted into office by the general public; and more. It’s time to add a little beef to this very important word.
Integrity should encompass the following:
Doing the right thing even when nobody is looking.
Doing the right thing even when no one else is.
Doing the right thing because it resonates from within you and not because of rules, moral codes, laws, or even collective acceptability.
Doing the right thing even if it causes pain, loss or grievance to yourself or another.
That would be a more complete conceptualization of the word, and anything less is simply a compromise with a word which speaks to the wholeness of who we really are.
Réal Laplaine
Author of high-concept thrillers
