Your thoughts on honour.

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Here we are, again, with 50 meanings for a word.

Generally speaking, honor is a reputation for doing good and acting correctly regardless of the consequences to you. It doesnt require rigid obedience to laws or moral prescriptions. Just do good and act correctly.

 

[rengadeirishman]

My honour does not justify female cirumcision, or killing my daugher/sister because she had sex outside of marriage.

My honour does however, justify blood for blood. I do not trust the law, i have seen bad people get away because of the law's nonsense.

Would i steal to feed my children? if i had no other choice i would, because my honour binds me to take care of my family before anyone else.

Unfortunately, like ogg said, honour can be abused. But then have humans ever created something they did not abuse?

 

[Recidiva]

My honour does not justify female cirumcision, or killing my daugher/sister because she had sex outside of marriage.

My honour does however, justify blood for blood. I do not trust the law, i have seen bad people get away because of the law's nonsense.

Would i steal to feed my children? if i had no other choice i would, because my honour binds me to take care of my family before anyone else.

Unfortunately, like ogg said, honour can be abused. But then have humans ever created something they did not abuse?

Yes. That's why I consider honor a tool. And like any tool you choose to use in every situation, it may not always fit.

I have many tools, and I reserve the right to make my choices according to the situation.

I've seen too many good people martyred to their principles where they're maneuvered into a situation where they can't escape because it would mean violating an ironclad principle. I love Thomas More, but I mighta lied before God and the church to protect my family, especially if my kids were young and at risk. I might have fled.

I believe in survival.

I'm not certain I believe in the law myself either. If my children were harmed and I thought the person who harmed them would harm someone else, and the law wasn't going to do anything about it...

I don't know. But I think at that moment I'd choose to avenge my kids and pay the price, considering it an honor to bear that burden.

I think that's part of honor also, expecting to pay a price for doing the right thing, not be rewarded for it.

I consider "No good deed goes unpunished" to be an unfortunate possible truth, not a cute saying. A bit like Murphy's Law.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I speak heavily of duty and HONOUR, but i am no military officer, or a highborn noblemen. I tried to enlist, but they decided i was unfit for duty.

I wish i could fight a duel, the world would be a much simpler place if disputes could be handled one on one to first blood drawn from the torso.

The celtic method of battle was very much wrapped in honour and suchlike, it was far more efficient. The heroes and chieftains would challenge each other to duels, and winner took all. Saved alot of lives that way.

We are born unto the times we are born unto, yanno.

As a teen and young adult i was heavy into the SCA. My dad laughed and pointed me at this poem;

[MINIVER CHEEVY, child of scorn,
Grew lean while he assailed the seasons;
He wept that he was ever born,
And he had reasons.

Miniver loved the days of old
When swords were bright and steeds were prancing;
The vision of a warrior bold
Would set him dancing.

Miniver sighed for what was not,
And dreamed, and rested from his labors;
He dreamed of Thebes and Camelot,
And Priam’s neighbors.

Miniver mourned the ripe renown
That made so many a name so fragrant;
He mourned Romance, now on the town,
And Art, a vagrant.

Miniver loved the Medici,
Albeit he had never seen one;
He would have sinned incessantly
Could he have been one.

Miniver cursed the commonplace
And eyed a khaki suit with loathing;
He missed the mediaeval grace
Of iron clothing.

Miniver scorned the gold he sought,
But sore annoyed was he without it;
Miniver thought, and thought, and thought,
And thought about it.

Miniver Cheevy, born too late,
Scratched his head and kept on thinking;
Miniver coughed, and called it fate,
And kept on drinking.

(Edward Arlington Robinson who was capable of some harrowing insights into the minds of man)

"Miniver Cheevy-ing" is a common reaction to the intricacies of modern life-- and I bet it has been so since the Renaissance!

 

[Recidiva]

We are born unto the times we are born unto, yanno.

As a teen and young adult i was heavy into the SCA. My dad laughed and pointed me at this poem;
(Edward Arlington Robinson who was capable of some harrowing insights into the minds of man)

"Miniver Cheevy-ing" is a common reaction to the intricacies of modern life-- and I bet it has been so since the Renaissance!

Oh, I love that...

My favorite for despair in our times has also been:

"Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers." - Socrates

 

[rengadeirishman]

Yes. That's why I consider honor a tool. And like any tool you choose to use in every situation, it may not always fit.

I have many tools, and I reserve the right to make my choices according to the situation.

I've seen too many good people martyred to their principles where they're maneuvered into a situation where they can't escape because it would mean violating an ironclad principle. I love Thomas More, but I mighta lied before God and the church to protect my family, especially if my kids were young and at risk. I might have fled.

I believe in survival.

I'm not certain I believe in the law myself either. If my children were harmed and I thought the person who harmed them would harm someone else, and the law wasn't going to do anything about it...

I don't know. But I think at that moment I'd choose to avenge my kids and pay the price, considering it an honor to bear that burden.

I think that's part of honor also, expecting to pay a price for doing the right thing, not be rewarded for it.

I consider "No good deed goes unpunished" to be an unfortunate possible truth, not a cute saying. A bit like Murphy's Law.

Ultimately, my honour binds me to my family and friends, and if something is required for them and i have to harm someone else to take care of them, then so be it. As far as i concerned, they are my tribe and i am their chieftain, and it if i must harm another tribe to take care of my own, well, its a dark and dangerous world.

does that make sense?

 

[Recidiva]

Ultimately, my honour binds me to my family and friends, and if something is required for them and i have to harm someone else to take care of them, then so be it. As far as i concerned, they are my tribe and i am their chieftain, and it if i must harm another tribe to take care of my own, well, its a dark and dangerous world.

does that make sense?

Yes, it does. My code gets very murky, but where it can be bright, I keep it so. I don't give it credit for being brighter than it is, nor do I deny the murk. That's my honor. The side effect of that belief system means I don't get along with people who require perfection or absolutes. I will be able to provide neither an example nor allegiance.

 

[oggbashan]

Interpolated by Og:

MINIVER CHEEVY, child of scorn,
Grew lean while he assailed the seasons;
He wept that he was ever born,
And he had reasons.

Miniver loved the days of old
When swords were bright and steeds were prancing;
The vision of a warrior bold
Would set him dancing.

When visionary warriors bold
Would slaughter any peasant
Even just slightly unpleasant
Or didn't do as he was told.

Miniver sighed for what was not,
And dreamed, and rested from his labors;
He dreamed of Thebes and Camelot,
And Priam’s neighbors.

When daughters died
Their brothers to bury,
And Lancelot the merry
Lanced Guinevere's cherry.

Priam's neighbours did him betray,
The Greeks infighting wrecked the day;
But nothing beat the morals poor
Of the Gods who oversaw the war.

Miniver mourned the ripe renown
That made so many a name so fragrant;
He mourned Romance, now on the town,
And Art, a vagrant.

Miniver loved the Medici,
Albeit he had never seen one;
He would have sinned incessantly
Could he have been one.

The Medici outkilled Al Capone
To keep the city theirs alone
If poison didn't do the trick
An assassin's dagger was quick.

Miniver cursed the commonplace
And eyed a khaki suit with loathing;
He missed the mediaeval grace
Of iron clothing.

In khaki brown our soldiers fight
Winning renown for film and story.
They keep our country's flame alight:
Khaki does not hide their glory.

Miniver scorned the gold he sought,
But sore annoyed was he without it;
Miniver thought, and thought, and thought,
And thought about it.

Miniver Cheevy, born too late,
Scratched his head and kept on thinking;
Miniver coughed, and called it fate,
And kept on drinking.

To act? Or just to think?
Glory came to those who strove,
Keeping safe those they love.
Nothing comes from too much drink.

Og

 

[Stella_Omega]

Ogg

I don't want to hijack this thread (hah) but another well-known EARobinson poem has its place here;

Richard Cory

WHENEVER Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
“Good-morning,” and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

 

[rgraham666]

Well done, ogg!