Do you remember believing authority and integrity were synonymous with one another?

gennie said:
Integrity easily loses to $$$ or power in today's world.
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On an individual level, it does not have to. We, you and I, can decide not to be jerks. I've done that in my career and I continue to work on it in every level.
 

the values of society have changed so rapidly we cannot keep up with them.

The values we taught and attempt to teach our children are filtered through the 'new values' they are
bombarded with every day. They are left with a vagueness, a lack of certainity, an inability to grasp what is true
and of value and what is only a trifling thing.
So, where does the fault lie?
 
Mr. Ed said:
Do you remember assuming/believing authority and integrity were synonymous with one another?
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I can't say I ever did, but I do know as I matured, I held no such beliefs and in fact, questioned authority every opportunity I had, every step of the way.
 

jerry old said:
the values of society have changed so rapidly we cannot keep up with them.

The values we taught and attempt to teach our children are filtered through the 'new values' they are
bombarded with every day. They are left with a vagueness, a lack of certainity, an inability to grasp what is true
and of value and what is only a trifling thing.
So, where does the fault lie?
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I remember my sister saying that as much as she taught her children good values, it was their peers they listened to.
 
Aunt Bea said:
No.

I do believe that we should all have respect for positions of authority even if we don't have respect for the individuals that occupy them.

IMO our society appears to be breaking down as individuals take it upon themselves to decide which of the people in positions of authority if any they choose to obey or comply with.

If the people in those positions are not appropriate then we have an obligation to work within the system to remove and replace them.
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True, up to a point. What if one of those people in authority ordered everyone to grab the nearest firearm and shoot people who are peacefully demonstrating, because they are "rioters?" And we haven't had time to jump through the hoops to "work within the system to remove and replace them?"

Should there be no individual discretion as to which people in positions of authority we should obey, or comply with?
 
I stopped believing those to be synonymous before exiting elementary school. By my mid-teens it was pretty clear that authority and integrity had no relationship to one another.
 
Sunny said:
True, up to a point. What if one of those people in authority ordered everyone to grab the nearest firearm and shoot people who are peacefully demonstrating, because they are "rioters?" And we haven't had time to jump through the hoops to "work within the system to remove and replace them?"

Should there be no individual discretion as to which people in positions of authority we should obey, or comply with?
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You make a good point. We need to comply with the higher morality, not that of the govenment that orders us to murder people in the name of "justice." I remember thinking about that relative to being in the military and going to war. I knew I could never shoot someone just because I was told they were the enemy. They are people with lives and families too. It's the same on the streets now. It's horrendous. In Portland, a city I always loved, violence has gotten out of hand and the peaceful protest is being hijacked by others. I could go on and on about it, but we aren't supposed to talk politics here.

I remember a friend telling me about when he was in Vietnam. He came face to face with a guy who was ready to shoot him. The guy was making his way through the barbed wire barricades. My friend didn't want to shoot , but he said the guy opened fire. It was kill or be killed. So my friend shot the guy. He said it blew off the guy's arm and green stuff came pouring out. I said, green stuff? And he said, yes, the Viet Cong filled their soldiers with drugs so when they went through the barbed wired fences they would not feel the pain. My friend told me of the trenches he dug with a tractor/cat with grasping tongs. Then he had to pick up bodies with the tongs and drop them in. Parts of the bodies were sliced in two. It was horrendous. Years later the images are still in his mind. He has severe PTSD. It is not good. None of it is good.
 
Phoenix said:
He said it blew off the guy's arm and green stuff came pouring out. I said, green stuff? And he said, yes, the Viet Cong filled their soldiers with drugs so when they went through the barbed wired fences they would not feel the pain.
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Aw, g'wan!
 
Mr. Ed said:
Do you remember assuming/believing authority and integrity were synonymous with one another?
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I do remember and I wasn't a child, it used to mean something. I also remember in believing in our institutions. If the CDC said something, I believed it! Now I realize that it is being run by politics and can no longer be trusted. the point of our government structure was checks and balances, but one has to follows the rules and the laws for that to work. I am so sad for all of us.
 
Pepper said:
Aw, g'wan!
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War is never John Wayne glorious.
pip48 said:
I do remember and I wasn't a child, it used to mean something. I also remember in believing in our institutions. If the CDC said something, I believed it! Now I realize that it is being run by politics and can no longer be trusted. the point of our government structure was checks and balances, but one has to follows the rules and the laws for that to work. I am so sad for all of us.
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The institutions have been under attack during the last few years. Dr. Fauci is still trustworthy. He didn't cave.
 

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