Unified Patriots by Vassar Bushmills
(With Postscript)
Is it a sign of less character to be vain? How about excessively vain?
Is it sign of low character to be arrogant? Or just excessive arrogant?
Is it a sign of low character to display condescension toward others? To look down one’s nose?
What if we don’t wear condescension on our sleeve, but only think it about another? Is that an act of less character in ourselves? Do we decide based on how they are dressed, where they are located, or wait til they speak?
Is it a sign of low character to brag? Even when the bragging is true, as it sometimes is?
When is bragging excessive, and when is it just socially acceptable self-promotion.
Is it a sign of bad manners to be blunt? Excessively blunt?
Are bad manners always a sign of less character, or, as Mark Twain once said of profanity, “sometimes provides a relief denied even unto prayer.”?
So, what about the use of foul language, then? Some words are gross and foul anywhere, others taboo everywhere. Blasphemies, no matter where uttered, carry their own set of penalties, (at least people of faith believe) but also carry their own largely private rules of repentance. No one else’s business.
What about locker room talk, whether recorded (probably evidentiary) or repeated (hearsay always) but only to prove another element of an offense, in this case, low character?
Is it an act of low character if I laugh at a dirty joke? Or merely stay in the room and listen?
What words are commonly used today, in conversation, blogging, and Twitter, that were once believed to be indicators of low character? Does their use today convey the same sentiment about character?
Make a list of words you believe to be exceedingly bad and which indicate low character, then compare with friends.
In measuring character. do you use a different measuring stick depending on the way a person is dressed? Or speaks, Ya’ll.
From the featured image, if Mona Lisa had had four drinks, would you think differently about Mona’s character?
What about the jokester who profaned Da Vinci’s masterpiece? Bad character? Bad taste? Or just clever?
Is draft-dodging a sign of low character? (A hindsight observation, since there has been no draft in close to 50 years, and virtually no person alive under 60 who can tell us much about what the draft really was, what it really meant to draft age young men.) (Apparently Wikipedia doesn’t either.)
Is draft dodging an act of low character or an act of conscience? Can it be both? Apparently the Left thinks it’s both, to be applied selectively by a political measuring stick. Does our side do likewise?
Was it an act of low character to be in favor of the War in Iraq? Against?
After 911 enlistments to fight Terrorism did not increase? Indifference to American security? Laziness? Simpatico with the Terrorists? Are any of these a sign of lessening cultural patriotism and a general lessening of national character?
40 years ago, people who were divorced once were considered to be of lower character on that account alone. Mostly men. Now, not so much. Since divorces have not been aired out in public as to cause for at least 40 years in most jurisdictions; infidelity, (once believed to be an act of low character, and still a sin, for those of you who read), alcoholism, infertility, (inability to produce children), just couldn’t get along, poor provider, there is no way to know what today, if any, acts of low character might have broken the marriage[…]
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