Posted by Bob on December 1, 2005 at 5:51 pm

In my old “Partisan Dictionary” which I wrote in the Southern Partisan in the early 1980s, the following definiton appeared,

“Manners, n,

A formalized substitute for courtesy.”

Manners if doing whatever is fashionable and written down. Courtesy is concern for the other person.

By the same token, “ethics” is written down. Honesty, like courtesy, needs no explanation.

I have pointed out that the moment someone said something to me that sounded like they were getting around to “something you would like to have,” I would quote to them the Draconian penalties for bribing a staffer.

This was often unfair. I had honestly misinterpreted where they were leading. But it also gave me a certain reputation as a person who could not be trusted with even a hint of a bribe.

Why, exactly, was I so nasty about such hints of offers?

“well, Bob, it’s because you were raised in the Bible Belt. The Book taught you that ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against they neighbor’ even if they pay you.”

And that is what really worries me about Wordists. My ancestors were proud to die to a man around the leader they had sworn fealty to long before the Gospel, much less the Old Testament, ever got to them.

I don’t lie, I don’t cheat, I don’t steal, and I honor my word not because some Book told me to be that way, but because I AM that way.

If you want to know about someone, let them talk. When a person justifies honesty by quoting a Book, you had better put your wallet in a safe place.

His Book can change tomorrow. His INTERPRETATION of his Book can change tomorrow.

Honesty is what an honest man takes for granted.

Wordism is for psychopaths.