There have been those who, in fact or fiction, have painfully high integrity. They are the idealists, the aesthetes; pure-hearted and unable or unwilling to ignore corruption, neither in observance of authority, habit, etiquette, anxiety, nor appetite. They’re often destined to be martyrs, pariahs, antagonists; ahead of their time as much as against it. Steadfastly, without hypocrisy or farce, they conduct themselves in accordance with conscience, even if they’re naturally poor in virtue and struggle with temptation or unintelligence. In struggling, those with high integrity may rise above an otherwise ignoble nature which others would succumb to, and cultivate unnatural virtue in themselves.
[img: examples of individuals with high integrity ]
This can little doubt not be said about the majority of adult humans, and even the best among us are likely somewhat deficient in integrity.
At the heart of personal integrity is honesty with one’s conscience – acknowledging what one truly feels to be right or wrong.
People commonly only listen to part of their conscience, leaving dissonant voices as background noise and living with a sense of being deeply torn and unresolute. Those with high integrity often face intense moral dilemmas due to fairly acknowledging all sides, but only by doing so they may they find genuine resolution, allowing their conscience to act as a beacon rather than a crossroads. Integrity has the sense of ‘wholeness’ and ‘steadfastness’ or ‘strength of conviction’ as well as ‘honesty’.
[img: | text: Biased treatment of others reflects internal bias, such as only listening to our ‘stronger’ empathy for family and friends and ignoring our weaker empathy for strangers. Allowing bias to skew our perception of reality is a form of irrationality. ]
Facing our discomfort about a social event is just as much a matter of integrity as facing our discomfort about following a kill-order. Otherwise, our intent would be corrupted by the discrepency and we’d be at risk of making choices we feel on some level are wrong. To someone who is morally honest, it seems illogical that anyone would choose to do what they sincerely feel is wrong, especially if we believe people are born innocent. But this is made possible by people simply ignoring their morals, which is often easier and more comfortable than facing painful truths, challenging moral dilemmas, or moral responsibility.
[ img: “This is fine” meme ]
The cruel aren’t just insensitive, they’re dishonest, knowing they’re harming others yet ignoring its intuitive “wrongness.”
We reject the popular adultist notion that integrity is more “valuable” the more effort is required to maintain it in the face of internal pressures like temptation. The fact we have to fight our tendency toward corruption only shows how far removed we’ve become from a natural state of integrity. We go into this further in Original Nobility.
Moral “codes” stand in for the absence of sincere conscience (we provide guidelines but do not expect people to follow them religiously.)
Synaptic pruning in neuroplasticity and desensitizing the ACC to specific conflicts
Identifying as a bad person e.g. human, is what makes one a bad person. We don’t need to identify with our brains.
Prefrontal cortex weighs risk/benefit in decisions? What factors into that for someone with poor moral integrity?
Suppression as regulation vs suppression as dishonesty.
Integrity also has the sense of integration.
(Include relatable examples of moral dishonesty)
Humans, though they have generous mental resources to help them suppress their conscience, they aren’t the only species capable of doing so.
[ img: A downtrodden dog | text: The “well-behaved” dog is often a depressed dog, having given up on the desire to run, explore, dig, bark, or cry due to repeated punishment and obstacle. They have not become truly happy with their situation, but have learned to tolerate it and save their energy instead of keep trying to escape or defeat their oppressors. They’ve abandoned themselves as much as a human who lies to themselves to cover up their true feelings. ]
[ img: Spirit in ‘Sound the Bugle’ | text: Spirit struggles to maintain his integrity after being captured and “broken” by colonial slavers. ]
Neuroscience
[ img: firefighters | text: The firefighters heroically suppress fear and focus on their desire to rescue trapped victims. The arsonist? They suppressed fear in order to hurt others. Emotional regulation is used in acts of heroism and villainy alike. ]
The firefighters would only be dishonest if, like the arsonist, they used their power of emotional regulation to neglect their feelings rather than manage them. For example, they might fail to take sensible safety measures or honestly weigh the risks if they don’t “listen to their fear”. When it comes to neglecting empathy or “fear of hurting others”, this can have dire consequences to others.
Young children in general are less capable of insincerity only because they’re less capable of emotional regulation. Ideally, people would be incapable of insincerity despite being able to emotionally regulate as required.
Neuroscience
[ img: Zephy with a crown, she’s labelled ‘Prefrontal cortex’ and she sits at the top of a pyramid, the ACC is directly beneath her represented as protestors saying “Attention! Something is wrong! Fix the problem!”, emotional regions are lower still represented by crying families | text: ]
The idea of a “high integrity political system”
Interoceptive awareness/insula. Strong PFC + amygdala coupling.
The existence of superheroes implies the existence of supervillains.
‘Executive control,’ a function of the brain’s prefrontal cortex, is responsible for voluntary emotional regulation and dishonesty.
The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is responsible for detecting errors, such as contradicting beliefs. This creates distress and a solution is sought, including the ‘cheap relief’ of simply ignoring contradicting information. An honest liar, as in one who fully accepts the fact they’re lying to others, greatly exercises their ACC in order to monitor for discrepancies in their story or behaviour. A habitual liar is less honest for they lie effortlessly and with little awareness of the fact they’re lying.