Honor - Its Many Ways And Directions

Honor is based on something solid in the past. During the middle ages, the term “honor” did refer to the estate of a person or Nobel and did concern all of its property. The saying “on my honor” was used when the person did put all its estate as a guarantee for a deal or agreement. Slowly the term changed in value to become equal to a person’s reputation. In most countries, during the middle ages, there was no such thing as police to uphold the law.

Transcript

This lecture is about honor.

Honor,

It has many ways and many directions.

Honor is based on something solid in the past.

During the Middle Ages,

The term honor did refer to the estate of a person or a noble and did concern to for all its property.

The saying,

On my honor,

Was used when the person did put all its state as a guarantee for a deal or an agreement.

Slowly the term changed in value to become equal to a person's reputations.

In most countries during the Middle Age,

There was so much things as a police to uphold the law.

They didn't exist.

A person's reputation or honor was the guarantee that a deal will come true and settled in good order.

There also did start a division of people with and without honor.

It was obvious that the people with honor were those who did have possessions and people without honor did not.

But in many countries these were groups of people who,

Even when they got possessions,

Never had the right to be honorable such as graveyakers,

Beggars,

Shepherds,

Barbers,

Millers,

Weavers,

Lettering cleaners and so on.

Those people did never have official honor,

So they could not grant this honor.

Even they had possessions due to their profession and their families were expelled of honor system.

If a person did not dare to misuse its honor or dare to did so,

He became dishonorable and dropped in the ranking to the lowest levels.

But there's more.

Gossip,

Land speakers and others would inform each other about the person and its lost honor,

Which did make life hardly possible and the person had to move away to or be killed.

In these days there were only some punishment for people.

There were the dungeons,

The underground jails where life was like living death or to be killed by hanging,

Shooting or the axe.

As people knew the jail well,

They often choose to be killed over going there to the jail to keep at least some part of the reputation of the family.

It is said that with choosing to die is also the origin of the so called honorable killings in some cultures.

These killings take place to save the reputation of the family.

Most of these killings victims are female and are often innocent females who did do something that the male did not like.

None of these killings ever did good for the reputation of a family or did really solve a problem.

In fact,

Those killings only increase existing problems.

Family honor still play a very important role in many cultures,

Especially in rural communities where the members of a family must be confirmative with family rules and the regulations which are often centuries old traditions.

Traditions are strongly rooted in honor based society where it is often a fact that there is no real law and order.

There is no force by an external party such as a police or a government.

We find these cultures still in many rural areas around the world,

But also in slums and poor parts of the cities where there is hardly any police control.

On the other hand,

There has been other developments like those in Japan where honor got a very different explanation.

Honor became loyalty till death for people in the service of officials like landlords,

Kings and emperors.

The code of honor,

Also called the Bushido code,

Was installed to keep the warriors in a controlled mindset to fight for the owner of their Lord.

In fact,

We can refer to the same middle-aged traditions as before.

The Lord wanted to protect his assets and used the warriors or samurai to uphold its rights to the power and to establish that stronger and just like that.

The Bushido code is a strong martial art code and subscribes strict behavioral rules and gives guidelines for living but also for fighting.

In Korea we find the same kind of development such as Se-on-bi.

These men were trained in martial arts,

Loyal to the king and followed a strict code of conduct.

And they followed the Confucian philosophy.

Most interesting was the fact that the samurai and Se-on-bi both were supposed to be moderate personalities who served with their life in a humble way for the sake of the community.

In current day we see more different forms of honor based systems that are still very active and are in some way even developing.

The first system is engraved in our education system.

Our education system has many honorable titles to give away for special people who did earn these honors by performing some extraordinary performances.

To receive an honorable title is shown the appreciation of the society and the institute that is giving it away.

There are important facts concerning these honorable degrees that we also find again in the militaries.

And you carry the degree with honor meaning that you behave in your life according to the rules of being a good citizen and one with proper behavior.

You know that when you break the rules you will be shamed and named and lose your reputation which will often result in losing your job,

Position and income.

Honor also here still refers to the reputation,

Income and again possessions.

It is important to note that there are also different honorable degrees.

The first and most important in this degree is giving to people who are part of the system that gives it away.

These people have spent years to reach a certain level,

Have performed better than others within that society and show a form of excellence that others do not.

With other words these degrees are earned by hard work,

Good connections and performance.

Then we also have the honorable degree given to people from outside the establishment or organization.

These people get the honor and sometimes also a degree because of special deeds performed in society on a specific terrain.

It is an extraordinary honor and given as appreciation and acknowledgement but not as a recognition of complete membership of that organization.

Now you will start thinking that the honor system has lost its value in the modern times and it is left over just the traditions but you could not be wrong more.

The honor system got a complete new input from the future and will become more and more important in a changing world where we should realize that the greatest changes will come probably from the honor system.

Because all over the world there are now very simple supermarkets opening up with a self scan system.

These systems rely on your honor not to cheat and steal from the company but scan all your goods and pay for what you take.

These systems rely on your honor not to cheat and steal.

They give you the honor to buy and decide for yourself to keep your honor or break it.

When you break it and they catch you it is their right to shame you publicly.

This is also the possibility for the future of public traffic and there you get the right and the duty to pay for your drive,

For your going somewhere or cheat it.

It's up to you.

They count on your honor to pay and otherwise they must shame you and that means you get punishment and whatever.

The honor system is clearly alive and developing everywhere even in the social media.

Most people have a page on social media and this side is to honor themselves and by liking others will give them honor for the fact of being there at this social media.

What is the meaning of the honor system for you?

Honor is a self evaluation of what you are worth and if you represent something.

Having honor implies that you did create value for yourself as a person.

Honor is a very personal but also reflects to your family,

Relationships and your friends.

Let me make this more clear to understand.

When you become a champion,

Doesn't matter in what kind of sport or whatever,

This will make people around you more happy as you become more valuable to society and so your position is different in the eyes of others.

Let me be clear,

The championship is temporary so the honor should be temporary but that's not the case.

Even when you used to be a champion,

This honor cannot be taken away from you unless you become a champion under false ways like the use of prohibited substances or products or just plain cheating.

Only you lose the honor when you will be shamed for life.

Look at Olympic and world class sport people who were caught for drug abuse,

They will hear that for the rest of their lives.

They are badly shamed and blamed,

Which I really do not agree with.

The honor system for you implies that you should do things as correctly as possible following the code of honor and conduct in your direction.

So in your job,

In your work,

In your study or even in the sports you do.

The honor system for you applies that you should do things better and create more honor.

So you be aware that the honor system mainly counts for people who wants to reach the top,

Be superior or excellent and hardly ever for just ordinary people.

So nothing changed through the ages.

If you are not planning to be special or superior in anything than just whatever,

The system will not have much effect on you.

Unless you plan to shop or travel with companies who use the honor system as a company policy.

What influence does honor have in your personal life?

The influence is related to your background in culture,

In society,

In gender,

Education and your active participation in that society.

Your cultural background and gender are important to the real content of the honor system and the grip it has on your thinking.

Every culture has a specific interpretation of the system which is handed over to you silently and often in an unrecognizable way.

Most of the time the system is explained by traditions and like that is the way it is without any clear reason.

When we think back of the beginning of this lecture we can understand that everything finally comes back to the ownership of something.

Ownership can be virtual,

Imaginary or even a realistic thing.

People can imagine they own a family,

A family member or even the thought of past glory.

Honor has a strong emotional content which is related to your education and environment.

As all has influence on the way you consider honor to be a part of your life.

Most people in younger generations are totally unaware of the fact that honor still plays an important role in their daily life.

And it's good for you to stay still with the concept and realize the role of it in your life.

Question and answer.

Question 1.

In the media we are fed with the news that honor killings are a part of a specific culture.

Is that true?

Answer 1.

The surprising answer is that it is not the case.

Only most cultures name and frame it differently.

Let me give an example.

If someone touches your children or family members you will take action to prevent it to happen again or you wish to revenge right away.

Most cultures will take the revenge silently and avoid public knowledge of the event and the revenge.

This is in contrary of other cultures where the revenge is loudly announced and broadcasters of being a specific revenge.

The cultures where the revenge is as far as killing are limited and it happens only or mainly in countryside or from people who come from the countryside.

They are traditional and often very conservative.

The extreme of this action deserves and gets a lot of attention and most governments are taking action against it.

But as long as the value of women is still not very high we will continue to see this happening and education is currently the only tool we have to prevent it.

Question 2.

In sport we talk a lot about honor.

Especially in fighting arts.

People seem to choose honor over fame.

But what is honor in martial arts?

Answer 2.

Honor is based on traditions in martial arts.

We combine respect and honor like the old bar warriors did in the past.

By working hard in the sport we earn degrees and increase in level.

By hard work we create the honor of being a person with knowledge.

For this knowledge we receive respect from the people who are on a different level of knowledge and ability.

The fact that we receive respect is giving food to our honor and will grow it slowly but very steady.

To live in honor we will put more hard work in our development and improve ourselves mentally and physically.

Our goal is to be the best possible human we can be,

If possible a great fighter.

The honor is partly an emotion that relates to people who did the sport before us.

We relate to them and will try to become the master as they were.

So they are our sample.

It is an honor to every teacher and master to receive compliments and respect from students and see that they carry on with the work a master and a teacher does.

Question 3.

In the lecture you refer to the honor system of today.

Can you explain this a little bit more clear?

Answer 3.

When you enter a shop or public traffic the company who provides you the service will give you the honor to use the system by expecting your honesty to pay for the service or product they supply you.

The company gives you the honor to process something,

To take the ownership by using or taking the product for yourself.

Again it is really a possession,

Even when you travel.

If you don't pay for it they are entitled to dishonor you or publicly blame you,

Shame you and even arrest you,

Give you a penalty or even official warnings.

Your name is registered for the future which can have consequences for your work and other actions you have not planned to make.

In other words when you break the silent agreement of the honor system you will be punished by dishonor.

In the past the samurai was supposed to kill themselves when the honor was broken.

I do not see the relationship with our current world.

Can you explain that?

Answer 4.

In politics we still see it happen.

When politicians are blamed and shamed for not living up to the expectations of the party or parliament they are dishonest and must leave the political system.

This can be considered the ritual death of a politician because many times you never heard of them again.

We do not ask people to actually take their own life anymore but we still use the blame and shame to stop people in their effort to reach a certain goal.

Question 5.

I am in education and I want to have honorable degrees.

Is that my goal?

Do you think it is useful in society to have such degrees?

Answer 5.

Yes it is very useful.

And it will influence your salary for sure.

An honorable degree is a witness of the fact that you are a special person.

You perform better than other people,

You have different abilities and they can hardly find people like you.

And that will be all not in positions.

Thank you for listening to this podcast and I hope you like it.

If you have any questions or remarks please post them here or send them by email.

My name is Arnald van de Vere from the Netherlands.

Please check the other podcast of your interest.