The Principle of Selective Integrity

For decades, I have asked myself a fundamental question. Are people inherently good or evil?

My answer to that question boiled down to this. On the whole, the human race is fundamentally benign but indifferent. You can be secure that on average someone will not beat down your door and assrape you with a broom handle just out of the blue. But if you leave a $20 bill lying on the ground, you are not likely to get that back.

The next question I asked is whether a particular person was good or evil. And this got even stickier. People just aren't black and white. What will blow your mind is that certain seeming paragons of virtue can turn out to be such utter scumbags. A fine example would be Eliot Spitzer who went after prostitution with zeal as a prosecutor but ended up being caught in his own trap when it was discovered that he was soliciting the services of a high dollar callgirl.

OTOH, it always amazes me how certain scumbags can turn out to be really good people. I think of Oskar Schindler who was a complete scoundrel in every respect but saved many Jews from certain doom in the Nazi death machine. Or to give an even more striking contrast, you are better off letting a gangbanger serving time in San Quentin watch your children than to turn them over to a Catholic priest.

What I find is that people are both good and bad depending upon the time and place. Russell Crowe's character in American Gangster was an extremely honest cop but a philandering husband who couldn't keep his dick in his pants. Again and again, I see people with this strange mixture of vice and integrity. It can be quite mindblowing.

From all of this is born the Principle of Selective Integrity which states that a person's honesty is fluid and often contradictory and dependent upon the time and place. The honest shopkeeper might be a wifebeater. The good cop might hate Puerto Ricans. The devoted wife might like to have sex with strangers at all night orgies when her husband is away on business.

Selective Integrity is not really integrity at all since the definition of integrity is having the same quality throughout. It is based upon consistency. Selective integrity is really a hybrid. It says that scoundrels can be moral at times. Likewise, saints can be corrupted. In short, no one is totally good or bad but fall somewhere between those poles.

Looking at myself, I like to think I am a person with impeccable integrity. But I think it is foolish to go around telling people about it. I prefer to have a bad repuation instead. It is easier to surprise people who think the worst of you than to live up to the expecations of those who think the best of you. So, I make it a practice to diminish other people's expectations. I'm not a good guy, folks. I'm scum.

What I've learned is that you can't go through life expecting people to be perfect. But I do go through life being pleasantly surprised. People I thought were going to be utter scum turn out to not be so bad. And the saints I feel guilty around really aren't saints at all. Take the good with a grain of salt and don't be surprised if a bad person doesn't do you a good turn every now and then.

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