Moral Friday....Podcast #402: Why Honor Matters

via Art of Manliness.

In today's world, honor is typically thought of in terms of integrity — doing the right thing when no one is looking. But traditionally, honor meant having a reputation worthy of the respect of others. If people think about this type of honor at all these days, it’s usually in a negative way, associating it with pistol duels, honor killings, and toxic shame. But my guest today argues that for moral life to be robust and vital, a culture of honor is absolutely necessary. His name is Tamler Sommers. He’s a professor of philosophy at the University of Houston, co-host of the podcast Very Bad Wizzards, and the author of the new book Why Honor Matters. Today on the show, Tamler and I discuss honor— what it is, why it disappeared from our moral ethos and vocabulary, and why we should bring it back. Tamler makes the case that honor culture fosters community and encourages risk taking for the sake of excellence, while our modern dignity culture atomizes us and encourages us to play it small. He then makes a counterintuitive argument that the contained aggression and violence that honor promotes can have real benefits and shares one way honor is making a comeback in the form of the “restorative justice movement.” We end our conversation discussing why stories of honor are so appealing to humans and whether it’s really possible to revitalize honor in modern Western society. 

Podcast here...definitely worth a listen. Download here.

Full disclosure.  The issue of "honor" has popped up in a personal way lately. I've had a chance to observe people in various states over the past couple of months and I'm mortified.

Long short?

Everyone claims it.  No one actually does it.

You have jaded, foolish or even idiotic people claiming it, but even a casual glance at their behavior shows that they act in the most insane and questionable ways ever.

On a personal level I'm done with it.  If I come across some moron (and it happens regularly lately) that claims honor but demonstrates even once that they're devoid of honor and have a child like sensibility I'm done with them.

No fucking second chances.

I'll believe my lying eyes and cut bait.

No conversation.

No attempts at understanding or putting myself in their shoes.

I'm just done.

Consider it the mental equivalent of wiping dog shit off my shoes.