{"id":62127,"date":"2025-11-28T17:48:38","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T16:48:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=62127"},"modified":"2025-11-30T21:25:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T20:25:17","slug":"a-reminder-there-is-no-political-cause-that-justifies-trampling-on-honor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/11\/28\/a-reminder-there-is-no-political-cause-that-justifies-trampling-on-honor\/","title":{"rendered":"A reminder: there is no political cause that justifies trampling on honor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I've been writing this blog for 21 years and sometimes it's a little difficult not to repeat certain topics, but there are some that are worth insisting on.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2021\/09\/19\/if-you-apply-anything-goes-on-your-rivals-how-long-will-it-take-you-to-use-it-on-your-peers\/\">If you apply 'anything goes' on your rivals, how long will it take you to use it on your peers?<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/06\/05\/the-risk-of-supporting-unscrupulous-people-in-the-end-they-always-turn-against-their-supporters\/\">The risk of supporting unscrupulous people: in the end they always turn against their supporters<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>One of the issues I've been emphasizing for years is<strong> the need for fair play in politics and the duty to defend a noble cause with honor<\/strong>. Many people believe their political cause is the best and that anything goes to achieve their goals. <strong>The idea that anything is permissible to reach certain political ends should be a red flag that something is wrong.<\/strong> Unfortunately, we often only see this red flag when it occurs on the opposing side.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2021\/09\/19\/if-you-apply-anything-goes-on-your-rivals-how-long-will-it-take-you-to-use-it-on-your-peers\/\">Four years ago I commented here<\/a> (excuse the self-quotation) that <strong>if we throw our honor overboard, we degrade ourselves as people<\/strong>, that if we believe that anything goes in the field of politics, then in what way are we better than our enemies? I also pointed out that <strong>if we don't defend a noble cause by legitimate means, then does that cause deserve to be defended?<\/strong> Aren't we dishonoring the nobility of that cause by defending it with ignoble means?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Giving in to <strong>the idea that the end justifies the means when defending a good political cause<\/strong> is one of the most frequent temptations in that arena. In fact, <strong>it is often a reason why some political and ideological movements begin to derail<\/strong>. In this sense, I believe it is essential to always keep one thing in mind when defending ideas, whether from a political party, an association, a media outlet, a blog, social media, or any other sphere: <strong>acting with honor is as important, if not more so, than defending a noble cause<\/strong>. Honor is like the lighthouse beam that prevents you from running aground on a reef because you believe you are the best navigator.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, <strong>this applies not only to politics, but to all aspects of life<\/strong>. I believe a society is better when it keeps something so fundamental in mind, and it falls into crisis precisely when it forgets it. Obviously, <strong>when we talk about defending how society should act on any issue, honor must be an even more powerful guiding light<\/strong>, because the consequences of ignoring it can be especially disastrous. One only needs to look at history books.<\/p>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Image: Grok.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been writing this blog for 21 years and sometimes it&#8217;s a little difficult not to repeat certain topics, but there are some that are worth insisting on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10863],"tags":[15494],"class_list":["post-62127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflexions","tag-honor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}