Fortitude, Fealty, Rectitude, Virtue, Veracity, these are old words, classic words, righteous words, words we seldom if ever use or embrace these days. No, it’s worse than that. These are words that we not only, no longer use, but positively dislike, which says something about our mindset and our state of being.
Fortitude refers to standing firm in the face of adversity or danger. It is having mental and emotional courage, a positive and determined stick-to-itiveness, a neither give-up nor give-in mentality--choosing to do the more difficult (right) thing, rather than the easier (wrong) thing. This is the opposite of having a whiny, woe is me/why me, response to adversity, which often expects others to bail us out of trouble--that is more than likely self-created.
Fealty refers to fidelity, which in turn refers to staying true and loyal to one’s obligations and commitments, especially as it relates to another person. It is being faithful. Notice how we so easily discard our commitments to one another these days. It is becoming more and more difficult to find someone who values relationships, expecting long lasting intentional and trustworthy loyalty and faithfulness. Think of fidelity not only in family and marriage, but also within friendships, business and social relationships, and within the community in general.
Rectitude has to do with living, acting, or behaving in ways that line up with rightness of principle. It is conduct that has integrity. Virtue refers to having moral excellence, being good, conforming to ethical and moral principles. Veracity refers to speaking truly, honesty of speech and statement. Speaking the truth as one understands and knows it, rather than to prevaricate, which is to deliberately misstate with an intent to mislead.
These words elicit nothing more than ridicule these days. Comedians have a field-day with celebrities that dare to speak seriously about intentionally living as a man or woman of virtue, rectitude, and veracity. Oh how we laugh at those who aspire to such heights of character. “Prim and proper, puritanical, pietistic prudishness,” we derisively say with scorn and derision. It would seem that today’s motto is, Fie on goodness fie!
Why? Why do we sneer at goodness? What is so offensive about virtue? What is so wrong with piety, desiring to be true and honest, loyal and faithful, moral and good?
One reason perhaps is that we resent others who appear to be our moral betters. We’re well aware of our own moral failings. So we don’t like others that are overly good, compared to us. It not only makes us look bad, it makes us feel bad. We don’t like feeling guilty. And we most certainly do not like others making us look bad.
Another reason perhaps is that one person’s idea of goodness is another person’s idea of chains and shackles, that is, the enslavement of one’s freewill. We can’t seem to agree on right and wrong these days. So who is to say that I am being immoral or less than good—my idea of right and wrong may be quite different than yours. The whole abortion controversy, not to mention the debate on legalizing gay marriage, is an example of this problem, par-excellence!
A third reason, especially as it relates to truth, veracity and fidelity, is that dishonesty and deceitfulness works for us. We may say that we prefer the truth at all times. But the way we function in our day to day lives reveals that we are actually afraid of the truth. We prefer to use half-truths and little white lies, sometime outright lies, to help us get out of touchy and uncomfortable situations. What this behavior says is that telling a lie is more useful to us, makes things more manageable, than telling the actual truth.
Likewise, we tend to shun courage and fortitude because it takes too much out of us to be courageous and to actually do the right thing. Perhaps also it is because we get more care and attention from others when we plead fear and weakness rather than embrace strength and fortitude. At bottom, it is an attempt to escape direct responsibility for our actions and to avoid our call to duty, our moral obligations -- two other words we definitely seem to dislike today.
I suppose, if there is no final and ultimate accountability, our attitude respecting goodness and virtue matters very little. But if there is—a final accounting we shall give for our lives—it matters a great deal.
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