Integrity defines you
By Taru Bahl

BITTU SEHGAL, noted environmentalist and columnist, once said, "Compromise on the small things if you have to, but never on the big things. It just isn’t worth it". He may have been referring to issues like environmental degradation and sustainable development but the quote holds true for everything we choose to do. Only those who fail to differentiate between a basic principle and a simple wish feel that life requires compromise. These people then end up making compromises with their value system, business ethics, family principles and other guidelines which govern their personal and professional lives. From small compromises they move on to compromising on bigger things. They learn to take refuge in the fashionable argument of ‘moral grayness’ which gives legitimacy to those who don’t necessarily conform to the black and white pattern of existence. They compromise on their honesty, integrity and all that once mattered to them in the hope that it will take them closer to their goals.

They forget that the goals of a person of integrity must be in line with his values. His goals should be in harmony with his deepest convictions. Accepting a lesser job than one is trained for or desirous of may not be a compromise if one really needs a job and there are no jobs in the market. Also taking orders from a nagging employer does not qualify as a compromise. Broadly speaking, integrity does not consist of loyalty to one’s whims but of loyalty to a set of rational principles. A compromise then is not a breach of personal comfort but a breach of convictions. A compromise does not consist of doing something one dislikes, but of doing something one knows to be evil and/ or incorrect. Accompanying the spouse for a play which one is not interested in is not a compromise. It is surrendering to a personal choice to share and participate in the other person’s happiness. But surrendering to the spouse’s irrational demands or working for an employer who makes his money by fraudulent activities of which one is a part amounts to making a compromise. When a writer makes changes in his manuscript on the publisher’s suggestion, who feels that the changes make literary or commercial sense, it is not a compromise. But when the changes are made to please the publishers to woo voyeuristic readers, to create sensationalism by misguiding and, most importantly, going against one’s own judgement and standards then one is most definitely making a compromise.

Ayn Rand in her book, The Virtue of Selfishness, says, "A compromise is an adjustment of conflicting claims by mutual concessions. There can be no compromise between freedom and government controls. By going half way, accepting ‘just a few controls’ in the hope that egos would be appeased and peace restored in the short term, one is surrendering the principle of inalienable individual rights. Also substituting for it the principle of the government’s unlimited arbitrary power, thus delivering oneself into gradual enslavement."

There can, therefore, be no compromise on basic principles or on fundamental issues. Today, when people talk of compromise they don’t refer to legitimate mutual concessions but to the betrayal of one’s principles — the unilateral surrender to any irrational claim. Compromises, thus, imply acts of moral treason.

Integrity is something which one either has or does not have. It doesn’t come in small measures. It runs through a person’s veins, his blood and soul. It is reflected in every decision he takes, every stone he stumbles over, every crossroad he comes to, every mishap he encounters, every victory he rejoices in and every trauma he experiences. It is not present or measured in degrees and percentages. One cannot say that one will allow integrity to prevail in domestic matters but in the office one will turn into a ferocious hound who is ready to backbite about his colleagues. A fraud is a fraud, a cheat is a cheat. One cannot say, " I am 50 per cent virtuous and trustworthy and 50 per cent streetsmart". Integrity is reflected in the way we think, lead our life, bring up our children, run our home and office, map out our future and in the vibes we transmit.

Theoretically it may sound great, but is being virtuous practical and feasible? The first real test comes when the demands of truth and goodness appear to conflict with one’s self-interest or prospects. What does one choose? This is where one’s integrity quotient comes into play. For a businessman or industrialist, integrity has to come through in his decisions; in the way he runs his business, conducts himself with associates and rivals. Most decisions in business are based on uncertainties because one doesn’t have access to total information and on countless occasions one has to use one’s sense of judgement. The overriding importance of integrity therefore comes through when one makes one’s decision within the framework of the responsibilities that one carries. The businessman has to be fully conscious of the responsibilities he has vis-a-vis his shareholders, employees, consumers, government and society. If his decision is beneficial to his shareholders but is not in favour of the community at large, he is compromising. Similarly, a judge has to have the highest level of integrity — no bribe, personal feeling, emotion, desire or fear should cloud his judgement. A doctor’s integrity prohibits him from making wrong diagnosis, prescribing wrong tests and medicines for the sake of hiking his fee and increasing the patient’s dependence on him.

Whenever one makes a compromise one kids oneself into thinking that the compromise is temporary and that one will reclaim one’s integrity at some indeterminate future date. But can one correct a spouse’s irrationality by giving in or encouraging it to grow? Can one change one’s dishonest employer and make him tread the ‘straight’ path, giving up his huge profits? Can a journalist, who is used to trading his stories in exchange of favours and monetary benefits, give up the game so easily? Ayn Rand says, "One cannot achieve the victory of one’s ideas by helping to propagate their opposite. If one found it difficult to maintain loyalty to one’s own convictions at the start, a succession of betrayals, which help augment the power of the evil since one lacked the courage to fight, will not make it any easier at a later date but will make it virtually impossible." The casting couch in Hindi films, where countless heroines have compromised on their dignity and integrity, is legendary. They may turn virtuous and holier-than-thou at a later date when they have scaled the peaks of success but does that absolve them of their moral responsibility?

There can be no moral compromise on principles. In Atlas Shrugged John Galt says: "In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it’s only evil that can profit." The temptation to compromise is strong and at times overpowering. It appears an easier alternative. We choose to bend, ignore, even align ourselves to causes, people and situations which are incorrect because we are weak and lack emotional and physical strength. Even if we do not benefit in real terms, we choose to compromise simply because it makes our path easier to tread. But we have to realise that truth, valour, justice, duty, honesty, humility, fidelity, compassion, tolerance, integrity and love are some of the moral standards we have to consider, adopt and put into practice in our daily lives.

Integrity is a personality trait which one intrinsically responds to and naturally adopts in all that one does. Even if it exists in some obscure corner of our minds and hearts, it can be unleashed, brought centre stage without us being embarrassed or ashamed about it. Let it overpower our thinking, guide us and steer us towards higher planes of consciousness rather than be suppressed, subjugated and pushed more and more under the dusty carpet. Integrity lends stature, height, substance and weight to a person, making him literally and figuratively stand ten feet tall. And at the end of the day, it most certainly is worth the effort.