What is Honor?

What is Honor?

Honor is the highest personal achievement one can achieve. It is the trait that others look at the most. Honor is the state of maintaining the best possible reputation.

Honor is powerful. As an ideal, people kill and have been killed in its pursuit or maintenance. People can live their entire lives in pursuit of honor only to make a terrible decision and lose what they worked so hard to earn in the eyes of their community. It is hard to gain, easy to lose, and harder to regain. It is recognized on both individual and organizational levels, and men have risked it all to defend the honor of their family/clan/tribe/etc.

It is misunderstood by those do not feel they need it, and guides those who do. Some prefer death over dishonor. Men who seek it, but do not have it, can feel its absence.

You will be judged by whether or not you have it. Honor is the ultimate single standard: You are [an honorable person] or you aren’t. Honor can be lonely, for it only attracts other honorable people. It makes men do things they would rather not.

Honor does not play favorites. Honor does not make exceptions, but exceptions are made to maintain Honor. Honor does not bow to tradition, but honorable men respect the traditions of the land. Honor penetrates deeper than surface rules, and Honor is not quick to judge. Honor is not convenient. Honor is its own reward. Honor helps men sleep at night.
Without Honor, there can be no trust. A system filled with dishonorable men will corrupt and crumble from within. Without Honor, there can be no respect. When important decisions must be made, when lives are in immediate danger, when we must rely on someone – we turn to the honorable first. Honor does not give hand outs for those who meet the standard, and the standard of Honor cannot be exceeded.

Honor is not profession specific. Honor knows no age, time period, gender, or race. Honorable men may go unnoticed, but dishonorable men will attract much attention to themselves. Honor is what gives peace a chance. Honor is what allows ‘innocent until proven guilty’ to run its course. Honor is what prevents men from ‘lowering themselves to their level.’ Few have pity on those given a second chance to be honorable, and fail.

Honor is the ability, and willingness, to do the right thing because it is the right thing. Those who consistently demonstrate a faithful commitment to doing the right thing will earn the respect and admiration of their fellow man. Honorable Men live and die by single standards, but there are an infinite number of paths to dishonor. There are an infinite number of ways to betray the trust of their fellow man, to do the wrong thing.

Some of our ‘friends’ do not have it, and many of our ‘foes’ do. The only reason Honor is important, is because not everyone has it. Some say in order to know a Man, you must fight him; this is such because in a contest, the dishonorable will identify themselves.