The Foundations of Personality - Abraham Myerson (best large ereader .txt) 📗
- Author: Abraham Myerson
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changes laws. Without the law-abiding, disciplined spirit there
would be only anarchy, and though men have obeyed frightful laws
and still do, this is better than no social discipline. A
revolution occurs when the discipline, i.e., the rules and
regulations and the rulers and regulators, have not kept pace
with the new ideas that have permeated society. Men are willing
to be governed; nay, they demand it, but there must be at least a
rude conformity between the governed and the laws by which they
are governed. In other words, discipline of any kind is welcome
if the disciplined believe it to be right and just. Men accept
punishment for infraction of a law if they believe themselves to
be rightfully punished, but rebel against unjust discipline.
There are those who deny either openly or covertly the right of
society to regulate their lives or desires. In modern literature
this type of rebel is quite favor, ably depicted, although he is
usually represented as finally punished in one way or another.
Where a man rebels against a specific type of restriction but
favors another kind he is a reformer; if however he favors merely
the removal of restriction and regulation[1] he is an anarchist
and, in my opinion, without real knowledge of life. While the
rebel who denies the right of discipline exists, he is rare; the
commonest rebel does not deny society’s right to regulate but
either will not or cannot keep his rebel desires in conformity.
Most criminals are of this type, and the inability to conform may
arise from many defects in training or original character.
[1] Watch a busy crossing when the traffic policeman is at work,
regulating and disciplining. Everything is orderly,
smooth-working, and no one complains. Let him step away for a
moment; at once there is confusion, danger and the intensely
competitive spirit of the drivers comes out, with the skillful
and reckless and selfish invading the rights of the less skilled,
timid and considerate. The policeman’s return is welcomed by the
bulk of the drivers. There are very many points of similarity
between society and the busy crossing which need no elaboration
on my part.
In fact, though we may rebel against discipline and its various
social modifications, most of us are quite anxious that others
shall be disciplined and raise the hue and cry at once when they
rebel. Behind this dislike of the rebel is certainly the feeling
that he predicates a superiority for himself by so doing, and
this injures our self-esteem. Of course there is and may be a
genuine belief that he menaces society and its stability, but
those who raise this cry the loudest are usually themselves
menaced either in authority and power or in some more direct
cashable value.
The qualities which are now to be briefly discussed are in the
main great inhibitions. The moral code is in great part and by
the majority of men understood as inhibition and prohibition. A
man is held to be honest if he does not steal and truthful if he
does not lie. In reality this conception is largely correct, and
it is as we extend our ideas of stealing and lying that we grow
in morality.
Honesty, in relation to property, is the control of the
acquisitive impulses and instincts and is wrapped up with the
idea of private property. The acquisitive impulses are very
strong in most people but not necessarily in all, and we find
great variability here as elsewhere in human character. One child
desires everything he sees, wants it for his own and does not
wish others even to touch it, while another gives away everything
he has. The covetous, the indifferent, the generous, the
hoarders, the spenders,—these are a few of the types one finds
every day in relation to the property and acquisitive feelings.
The spirit of “mine” needs on the whole little encouragement,
though the ways to achieve “mine” are part of education. Mainly
the spirit of “thine” needs encouragement, and most of our law,
as differentiated from religion and ethics, has been built up on
settling disputes in this matter. In its primary form, honesty in
relation to property is the willingness to conform to society’s
rulings in this matter, e.g., the belief in ownership as sacred
and that to acquire something desired one must (ethical must) go
through certain recognized procedures. The whole conception rests
on the social instinct’s inhibitions of the acquisitive instinct
and in the growth and strength of feelings of conscience and duty
as previously described. Social heredity and tradition operate
very powerfully in the matter of this kind of honesty; to steal,
as we see it, from neighboring tribes is ethical for savage
races, and even to steal such property as women. Throughout the
ages the booty of war was one of the recognized rights of
warriors, and even though to-day we have conventions protecting
the private property of the enemy, this is one of those rules
definitely understood as made to be broken.
Stealing is very common among children, who find their desire for
good things too strong to be inhibited. But very quickly the
average child learns control in so far as certain types of
stealing are concerned. Some, however, never cease to steal, and
in my opinion and experience this is true of those who become
thieves later on. In very few cases do those who are eventually
pickpockets and second-story men first develop their art in
adolescence or youth; they have stolen from earliest childhood.
Those who steal for the first time in adult life are usually
those exposed to great temptations and occupying a position of
trust, such as the bank officer or the trusted employee. Here the
stress of overexpensive tastes, of some financial burden or the
desire to get rich quick through speculation overcome inhibition,
especially as it is too often assumed by the speculator that he
will be able to return the money.
How widespread petty stealing is will be attested to by the hotel
keeper and high-grade restaurant owner, whose yearly losses of
linen, silver and bric-a-brac are enormous. The “best” people do
not think it really wrong to do this, especially if the things
taken have a souvenir value. Farmers whose fruit trees adjoin a
public thoroughfare will also state that the average automobilist
has quite a different code of morals for apples and pears than
for money and gasoline.
“Caveat emptor”—let the buyer beware! This has been the motto of
the seller of merchandise since the beginning of trade. It has
made for a lot of cheating of various kinds, some of which has
persisted as part of the practice of at least many merchants up
to this day. Cheating in weight or quantity led to laws; and
there cannot be any relaxation in these laws, or false scales and
measures immediately appear. Cheating in quality led to
adulterations in food stuffs which were veritably poisonous, so
that it became necessary for each great nation to pass stringent
laws to prevent very respectable and very rich men from poisoning
their customers. Cheating in fabrics still flourishes and in
unsuspected quarters, not always those of the small dealer. And,
misrepresentation flourished in advertising openly and blatantly
until very recently. It is true that advertising has changed its
tastes and uses dignified and high-flown language, protesting the
abnormally virtuous ideal of service of the article advertised;
but can it be true that the makers of every car believe it to be
so remarkable in performance and appearance?
To the credit of American merchants let it be stated that a
widespread improvement has taken place in these matters, and that
on the whole there never was a more unanimous determination to
render service as at present. Yet while the goal of business is
profit, and the goal of the buyer is the bargain, so long will
there be a mutual over-reaching that does not fall far short of
dishonesty.
There are types that are scrupulously honest in that they will
not take a penny of value not obtained in the orthodox way of
buying, trading or earning, who will take advantage of necessity,
whose moral code does not include that fine sense of honor that
spurns taking advantage of adversity. These are the real
profiteers, and in the last analysis they add to their dishonesty
an essential cruelty, though often they are pillars of the
church.
I have dwelt on the dishonest; the types of honest men and women
who give full value in work and goods to all whom they deal with
are of course more numerous. The industrial world revolves around
those who resist temptation, who work faithfully, who give honest
measure and seek no unfair advantage. But that business is no
brotherhood is an old story, and poor human nature finds itself
forced by necessity and competition into ways that are devious
and not strictly honest. It’s the system that is at fault, for
men have formed a scheme of creating and distributing values that
severely tries and often weakens their ideals.
Truth in the sense of saying what is true and truth in the sense
of getting at ultimate relations are two different matters. The
first kind of truth is the basis of social intercourse, the
second kind the goal of philosophic efforts.
Speaking the truth invariably is not an easy matter and in the
strictest sense is quite questionable as to value. The white lie,
so-called, the pleasant, assumed interest, the untruth intended
to smooth social relations are shock absorbers and are part of
the courtesy technique.
In a more technical sense, the untruth told to obtain some
advantage or to escape the disagreeable in one form or another is
held to be dishonorable, but is very widely practiced. People are
enraged at being deceived if the deception is the work of an
outsider or one not liked; they are shocked if deceived, lied to,
by one they love. The lie stands as the symbol of weakness, but
to be “taken in” has more than the material hurt the lie
inflicts; it wounds vanity and brings doubt and suspicion into
social relations, all of which are very disagreeable. It is held
by ethical teachers to be worse to lie about faults than to have
committed the faults, though this may be modified to mean only
the minor faults.
All judges and lawyers will testify that “the truth, the whole
truth and nothing but the truth” is very seldom told in court.
Controversy is the enemy of truth, and when the fighting spirit
is aroused, candor disappears. Where any great interest is
involved, where the opponent is seeking to dispossess or to evade
payment, or where legal punishment may be felt, the truth must be
forced from most people. Moreover, passion blinds, and the
natural and astonishing inaccuracy in observation and
reporting[1] that every psychologist knows is multiplied wherever
great emotions are at work. If perjury were really punished, the
business of the courts would be remarkably increased.
[1] Not only is this true in law but in all controversy, whether
theological, scientific, social or personal, the ego-feeling
enters in its narrowest and blindest aspects to defeat honor,
justice and truth.
All this is normal lying,—not habitual but occurring under
certain circumstances. As clearly motivated is the lying of the
braggart, the one who invents stories that emphasize his
exceptional qualities. The braggart however is a mere novice as
compared with the “pathological liar,” who does not seem able to
tell the truth, who invents continually and who will often
deceive a whole group before he is found out. The motive here is
that curious type of superiority seeking which is the desire to
be piteously interesting, to hold the center
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