The concept of honor.

I'd like to talk about honor. I couldn't sleep, so I got to watching some youtube videos and thought about the concept of honor.

So what is the greatest honor of all?

Is it being famous? Like Kim Kardashian? or famous like Bill Gates? Honor is defined in a coupe of ways:

One being "Nobility of soul" being virtuous acts, righteousness, magnanimity, and the scorn of meanness.

I guess the real idea is that honor in this way is defined by perceived virtuous acts oneself commits. But in reality, who is the real judge of virtue? (Hopefully not a single individual)

Author Richard Weismann wrote a book titled "Quirkology" in which, he discussed a survey conducted by U.S. world news in 1997. In which, patrons were asked, of the people on the list, how likely was each one to go to heaven.

Now, we know "heaven" as a marker of perceived virtuous conduct and personal integrity. So, this study may be quite illuminating to some people.

In the study, 52% of patrons said Bill Clinton was likely to go to heaven. 60% of people said that Princess Diana would. BUT only 79% of people said Mother Teresa was likely to go to heaven.

Another twist? Mother Teresa only came in second. So who was the first? Well, at a whopping 87%...the answer was..themselves. When people were asked if they themselves were likely to go to heaven, 87% of people said they were.

The idea pulled from this is that, who is the real judge of virtue? In this study, it shows that more people thought that they were more likely to go to heaven over Mother Teresa (a supposed figure of virtue).

In all reality, maybe the greatest honor in the world is to be the best person you can be. In this way, It's possible to live on a socio-centric ideal of honor, rather than an egocentric ideal of honor.

So, is the honor of being famous, like Kim Kardashian or Bill Gates, better than the honor of knowing you are an every day hero to a few people? Is the idea of you being merely a figure to a lot of people (to be just known) better than knowing that you are a hero to the people around you?

I'll end with this quote:
"After I'm dead, I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument, rather than why I do."- Cato The Elder