There is, from time to time, honour to be found among us. It is a more common place experience amongst those not striving for power and control. Unfortunately this means that many seeking power and control are without honour in their plans and actions.
A famous quote beckons us to this problem and the need for honour to return. When honourable people stand and deny those lacking honour from carrying out their selfish, destructive deeds, honour has returned. Watch for it.
The most famous version of the quote attributed to Edmund Burke is:
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing.”
Related quotes support the notion and go further:
No man, who is not inflamed by vain-glory into enthusiasm, can flatter himself that his single, unsupported, desultory, unsystematic endeavours are of power to defeat the subtle designs and united Cabals of ambitious citizens. When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
John Stuart Mill delivered an inaugural address at the University of St. Andrews:
Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.
and
He should not be lulled to repose by the delusion that he does no harm who takes no part in public affairs. He should know that bad men need no better opportunity than when good men look on and do nothing. He should stand to his principles even if leaders go wrong.
And Burke’s quote was shortened to: ‘When bad men combine, good men must organize.’
Is it true there are so many “bad men”?
I think it is more an issue of a few “bad men” manipulating circumstances and environments to trick, trap, entice and control good men, with a weakness, to participate in bad actions.
Governments, politicians, police, lawyers are historically, consistently labeled as corrupted. Yet these professions ultimately control and direct our societies. How can it be that Continue reading 'Return to Honour'»