Honour.
Seems like an old-fashioned word. “Doing the honourable thing” is mostly taken to mean that young men should accept their responsibility if they’ve made someone pregnant outside of a long-term relationship.
Or a negatively-loaded word as used in “honour killing”. The irony and delusion of someone believing that murder actually brings honour. Really?
Which is a shame. Because like “character”, honour should play a much more prominent role in how we treat each other and society.
For instance, it should / could mean resigning from public office if you’ve brought that office into disrepute (aka been a bit of a shyster).
When was the last one of those you remember???
It sh/could also mean taking your responsibility seriously as a CEO who employs people. I know more founder/owner/CEOs than I care to mention who have on many occasions not paid themselves at all in order to ensure their team gets their salary. That is honourable.
And it means all of us treating our work honourably. Meaning doing the right thing by what we’re paid to do, rather than looking for ways to undermine it, or getting away with the least we can, or taking credit for the work of others.
It means, especially in today’s fake-it-til-you-make-it world, that our actions should be guided by what is right rather than what we can get away with.
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