| | Ed Thompson's description carries some mainstream validity; and most people would find it to be easy to accept. However, as Ed Thompson has only recently discovered Objectivism, his level of integration does not always cross the canonic literature.
For an Objectivist moral integrity is the source of personal consistency. When you have an objective code of values based on your need to live a full life in your own best interests, you act on the basis of objective standards.
You might find baseball or ballet to be reflective of those values. That is a personal choice. However, having made that choice, you would not suddenly change your mind because the home team got snazzy uniforms. Now, if you happened to be a designer of sports livery, then, yes, as a professional pursuing a valuable skill and trade, uniforms might be important. Again, that would reflect an important moral choice for you, the selection of a career.
(Lest sports seem trivial, I point out that sports entrepreneur Ed Snider was long an underwriter of Objectivism, including, lately, the film version of Atlas Shrugged. And according to his speech at the 50th Anniversary celebration of the novel, he said that he first was alerted to Atlas Shrugged by another sports entrepreneur Peter O'Malley.)
I have held many jobs over the years. That would seem inconsistent. However, in each case, the choices reflected unchanging objective values for self-actualization. Work is work and sometimes you take what you can get, but I always adhered to the moral rule of doing everything to the best of my ability. Even when I do quantitatively less, I do it qualitatively well. In that, I am consistent.
There is also a deeper meaning of "moral integrity." This applies no less to the Mother Theresa and Fidel Castro. Those who are morally integrated are personally consistent. Whatever choices they made were deeply considered and fully accepted in all the attendant consequences. Mother Theresa would not grant penicillin to a sick man because he was good looking or had children who needed him. For her, the suffering of others was her virtue. She would not stray from that on a whim.
On the other hand - and why the question comes up, of course - in our daily lives we meet people who flit from one thing to another, from jobs or hobbies or spouses or friends. They have favorite colors for a season. Young people are famous for this, and largely, they are not at grave fault, as youth is the time of changes when we build and discover ourselves. It is when this continues past adulthood and into middle age that we see the lack of moral integrity expressed as chronic personal inconsistency.
The strength and attraction of Objectivism is that it is in accordance with reality. Marxism and Christianity are not. If those are your moral standards, then some (or many if not most) choices will be forcibly inconsistent as you cannot live by an anti-life code of conduct. In The Fountainhead, Ellsworth Toohey lived simply, but very well. He sent his niece, Catherine, into the slums to be a social worker. He did not go there. The moral code of Objectivism allows and encourages consistent action. In fact, by the laws of cause and effect, consistent Objectivism demands integrity of action.
(Edited by Michael E. Marotta on 12/28, 6:52pm)
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