{"id":4063,"date":"2000-11-01T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2000-11-01T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/about-us\/history\/letter\/november-2000-the-decent-thing\/"},"modified":"2022-11-27T01:46:13","modified_gmt":"2022-11-27T01:46:13","slug":"november-2000-the-decent-thing","status":"publish","type":"rbc_letter","link":"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/about-us\/history\/letter\/november-2000-the-decent-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"November 2000 &#8211; The Decent Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"layout-column-main\">\n<p class=\"boldtext\">Decency is not a highfalutin word &#8211; not                     up there with related words like humanity, dignity and honour.                     It does not, like them, resonate with lofty principles and                     idealistic purpose. No one ever charged out to die on a battlefield                     crying: &#8220;For Decency!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"boldtext\"> Rather the virtue it describes is a minimal                     one, the ground level of the hierarchy of modern social and                     moral values. When we refer to &#8220;basic decency,&#8221; we mean the                     least that can be expected from members of a so-called civilized                     society.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/08\/nov2000_1.gif\" alt=\"image\" width=\"294\" height=\"285\" hspace=\"5\" vspace=\"5\"><\/p>\n<p> Along with &#8220;basic decency&#8221; comes &#8220;common decency,&#8221; the adjective                     referring to a general consensus on what constitutes acceptable                     behaviour. If this universal standard is not always honoured                     in practice, it is certainly given a lot of lip service in                     everyday speech.<\/p>\n<p>Just think of how often the word &#8220;decent&#8221; turns up in conversation                     about life in the western world: a decent income, decent housing,                     decent schooling, etc. The repetition of the term demonstrates                     that the expectation of an exchange of decent treatment is                     a precondition of a civil society.<\/p>\n<p>The expectation that people will behave decently towards                     one another, and that their institutions will behave decently                     to them, is at the core of the social contract that informally                     governs human relations under the democratic system. Decent                     intentions are so taken for granted that they are seldom noticed                     unless they are lacking.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the exchange of decent intentions, most people                     do &#8220;a decent day&#8217;s work for a decent day&#8217;s pay,&#8221; giving their                     employers or customers value for their money as long as that                     money compensates them properly. The proposition might sound                     mundane on an individual scale, but it is vital to human existence                     in the aggregate. For this honest effort, duplicated billions                     of times every hour of every day, is what makes the economic                     world go round.<\/p>\n<h3>Decency is middle class<\/h3>\n<p>Decency is the definitive virtue of the middle class, meaning                     of the majority in western countries. According to the late                     great cartoonist Charles Schultz, creator of <em>Peanuts<\/em>,                     this quiet, level-headed mass of people is what keeps the                     United States from ruining itself with excesses.<\/p>\n<p>Canada is as middle-class a country as will be found anywhere,                     and sure enough, its people are noted internationally for                     their decency. They are not easily moved to excitement, but                     they are sure to become vocally outraged when their governments                     are found to be treating people less than decently according                     to Canadian standards. They are less concerned with national                     glory than that their country will continue to be a decent                     place to live.<\/p>\n<h3>Today, behaviour that once was commonly identified as indecent has become almost the norm in                   western cultures<\/h3>\n<p>Being of the great middle class, decent folk tend to be                     upholders of &#8220;middle class morality.&#8221; (This phrase presumably                     was coined by intellectual snobs who could not conceive that                     morality could be the same for anyone of any social status.)                     The maintenance of morality is behind at least one dictionary                     definition of decency, &#8221; avoidance of obscene language and                     gestures and undue exposure of person.&#8221; There is an obvious                     linkage between this and the primary definition of the word:                     &#8220;Propriety of behaviour; what is required by good taste and                     delicacy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Undermining decency in society<\/h3>\n<p>Today, behaviour that once was commonly identified as indecent                     has become almost the norm in western cultures. In our larger                     cities, with their comedy clubs and nudey bars, &#8220;obscene language                     and gestures and undue exposure of the person&#8221; are so routine                     that they have lost much of their power to shock or even titillate.<\/p>\n<p>One need not live in the urban jungle, however, to be exposed                     to public indecency. People could dwell on a mountain top                     and still have it delivered to them via television &#8211; whether                     they want it or not.<\/p>\n<p>The difficulty for many adults today is not so much avoiding                     indecent material themselves, but keeping their children from                     being exposed to it. Parents rightly worry that the influence                     of the media makes children grow up too fast. Until a few                     years ago, television networks more or less answered their                     concern by censoring programs at the times of day when the                     young ones were most likely to be watching. Now, however,                     &#8220;children&#8217;s hours&#8221; are but a memory of a more innocent age.<\/p>\n<p>There was a time when a TV viewer could seek refuge from                     the flow of smut by turning to news and public affairs. No                     longer: the Clinton-Lewinski scandal furnished the lead items                     for newscasts for months on end. While it was argued that                     this story had to be thoroughly reported due to its political                     significance, the coverage dwelt at excessive length on its                     more salacious details. Anyway, there was no evident political                     significance to the Bobbitt case a few years earlier, but                     the media nonetheless gave it lavish coverage.<\/p>\n<h3>Political correctness versus decency<\/h3>\n<p>Having evidently embraced the notion that there are no absolute                     goods or evils, TV journalists are chary of being seen to                     take anything resembling a moral stand. Their reluctance in                     this regard is shared with other opinion-makers. Relativism                     of this kind recently caused an American social critic to                     express concern that &#8221; we are becoming a nation that can no                     longer make fundamental judgements about what is right and                     wrong.&#8221; The mere raising of the question of whether something                     is right or wrong is likely to be ruled out in mainstream                     intellectual circles as irrelevant and outmoded. It is as                     if the age-old concept of sin had suddenly been declared pass\u00e9.                     Rationalizations are offered for breaking every one of the                     Ten Commandments &#8211; except for the Eleventh one, which is,                     according to sociologist Paul Stein, &#8220;Thou Shalt Not Judge.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Being judgemental is not politically correct, and is therefore                     not <em> de rigeur<\/em> trendy company. The righteous champions of PC                     have managed to replace a lot of bad old taboos with bad new                     taboos. PC is reminiscent of the prudery in Victorian times                     which went to such extremes as to declare that no part of                     a human limb should ever be displayed in public. That was                     modesty run wild; in an extreme reaction that built up over                     many years, immodesty is running wild instead.<\/p>\n<p>Somewhere along the line, the old social safeguard of shame                     was thrown aside along with critical items of clothing. In                     contemporary entertainment and fashion, indeed, shamelessness                     has become a lucrative commodity. It finds its most extreme                     manifestation in the pornography that is now freely available                     in books, magazines, videos, and web sites. Sex-oriented advertising                     on the Internet has made it into an &#8220;electronic red light                     district,&#8221; as one writer recently observed.<\/p>\n<p>But immodesty does not have to be taken to extremes to be                     indecent. Indeed, it need not even have anything to do with                     sex; a person can be indecent while fully clothed. Remember                     the definition which talks of decency as &#8220;what is required                     by good taste and delicacy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The use of foul language would offend against good taste                     even if the words employed had no connection with immorality.                     And though &#8221; dirty words&#8221; are so routinely spoken by young                     people of both sexes that their original meaning has been                     forgotten, there are likely to be those within hearing range                     whom they make uncomfortable. As a simple courtesy (another                     word whose meaning seems forgotten these days) offenders should                     recall the old exhortation to &#8220;keep a decent tongue in your                     head.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Where there is bad language, there will be bad manners,                     too. Both are born of the prevalent attitude that individual                     freedom and self- expression come before the fights and feelings                     of one&#8217;s fellow human beings.<\/p>\n<h3>Can it be saved?<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/08\/nov2000_2.gif\" alt=\"image\" width=\"221\" height=\"108\" hspace=\"5\" vspace=\"5\" align=\"left\">All of the above paints a pretty grim picture of the present                     state of decency, especially as it applies to obscenity, nudity                     and vulgarity. The curious thing about it is how resilient                     it has proven to be; the decent folk have so far resisted                     or ignored all the recent assaults on their code of behaviour,                     and have gone on practicing it nevertheless.<\/p>\n<p>At first glance it might be thought that they are guided                     by an innate sense of how to relate constructively to their                     fellow human beings, but life is not that simple. People talk                     of a sense of decency as if it were the same as any sense,                     but it is obviously not something that is basic and constant                     in the human species. Consider the fact that there are times                     and places where all feelings of decency have been thrown                     to the wind.<\/p>\n<p>One recent horrible example is the ethnic cleansing in the                     Balkans. People use the phrase, &#8220;a decent burial.&#8221; One look                     at those pictures of the mass burial grounds of victims and                     ethnic atrocities will show you what true indecency is.<\/p>\n<h3>Decency learned at home?<\/h3>\n<p>It would seem that the nature-versus-nurture debate is resolved,                     as far as decency is concerned, by the fact that it runs in                     some families and not in others. While it is true that there                     is a naturally good-natured streak in some blood lines, it                     is even more true that attitudes are learned in the home,                     including the attitude that directs a man or woman to behave                     in a decent manner. There are also cases where people from                     decent-minded homes turn mean under the influence of mean                     companions. And decency seems particularly vulnerable where                     money or careers are at stake.<\/p>\n<p>In spite of the evidence that it is learned behaviour, it                     is generally thought &#8211; if it is thought about at all &#8211; that                     no particular ability is required to act decently.<\/p>\n<p>More&#8217;s the pity, because decency is not as simple as it                     seems. It is not acquired simply. The dictionaries do not                     do it justice, for, in the common understanding of the quality,                     it involves a great deal more than merely following established                     social rules. Instead, to act in a decent way is to bring                     into play a complex and intricate set of character traits                     such as benevolence, honesty, fairness, a sense of justice,                     and integrity. The whole ethos is deeply grounded in philosophy.                     No matter how insignificant an individual act may seem, decent                     behaviour is the actualization, the philosophical theory of                     human good.<\/p>\n<table width=\"415\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/08\/dotted_quote_line.gif\" width=\"415\" height=\"1\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<div class=\"quote\">The righteous champions of political correctness have managed to replace a lot of bad old taboos with bad new taboos<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/08\/dotted_quote_line.gif\" width=\"415\" height=\"1\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h3>What&#8217;s in it for me?<\/h3>\n<p>At the same time, it is a curious fact that few philosophers                     have ever dealt with the subject specifically. Perhaps the                     quality is just so common that it was almost invisible to                     the great minds of history. Possibly the nearest thing to                     a theoretical framework for it was Confucius&#8217; concept of the                     &#8220;duties of universal obligation.&#8221; His starting-point was what                     is otherwise known as the golden rule; in Confucius&#8217; backhanded                     rendering, this means that you should not do to others what                     you would not have done to yourself. From this standpoint,                     the practice of decency assumes the coldly pragmatic character                     of a kind of insurance policy for equitable treatment. Good-heartedness                     has nothing to do with it.<\/p>\n<p>The great Chinese sage was not so idealistic as to deny                     the presence of evil. He acknowledged that, in an imperfect                     world, it is not always easy or convenient to do right. Still,                     he wrote, &#8220;to see what is right and not do it is cowardice.&#8221;                     The obverse of that proposition is that it takes courage to                     consistently do the decent thing.<\/p>\n<table width=\"415\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/08\/dotted_quote_line.gif\" width=\"415\" height=\"1\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<div class=\"quote\">The use of foul language would offend against good taste even if the words employed had no connection with immorality<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/08\/dotted_quote_line.gif\" width=\"415\" height=\"1\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>In his Anelects, published circa 400 B.C., Confucius recognized                     that people come under pressure to behave less than decently.                     Since virtue is not, as advertised, its own reward, it is                     not always in one&#8217;s material interests to practice decency.                     To avoid the pressure to do otherwise, he warned against succumbing                     to the influence of &#8221; those who are good at accommodating                     their principles&#8221; and &#8220;those who are good at talking.&#8221; This                     also has recourse to a standard philosophical principle, expressed                     in the Bible as, &#8220;to thine own self be true.&#8221; In his concern                     with the temptations of what we now call situational ethics,                     Confucius originated the maxim, &#8220;practice what you preach.&#8221;                     To him, sincerity was the virtue to be cultivated above all                     else. The sincere person, he wrote, is one &#8220;who chooses what                     is good and holds it fast&#8221; despite all the world&#8217;s blandishments                     to let go of it. But in the end it was &#8220;the way of heaven,&#8221;                     he wrote.<\/p>\n<h3>Maintaining the balance<\/h3>\n<p>Another classic thinker who studied decency, though not                     in the modern sense of the term, was Justinian the Great,                     the Byzantine emperor. Writing in the 1500s, he distilled                     its elements into a pithy formula: &#8220;The precepts of the law                     are these: to live honestly, to injure no one, and to give                     every man his due.&#8221; (That a woman also should be granted her                     due was not even considered in his day and age, but the spirit                     of the thought is the same for either sex.)<\/p>\n<p>As a professional administrator, Justinian knew that by                     far the most important laws are of the unwritten variety.                     The laws which people follow from the dictates of their own                     consciences are the ones that ensure true justice and civil                     peace. There may be ordinances to ensure decency as it pertains                     to modesty and morality, but there are none that say that                     a man or woman can be prosecuted for not treating his or her                     neighbours with fairness, compassion and consideration. That                     treatment can only be guaranteed by the prevailing standards                     of a society. In a truly well-ordered society, the unwritten                     law of decent conduct is the one that is most strictly obeyed.<\/p>\n<p>Whether it is obeyed or not makes all the difference to                     the quality of life in a time or place &#8211; and to life itself,                     for that matter. For &#8220;the thin precarious crust of decency                     is all that separates any civilization, however impressive,                     from the hells of anarchy or systematic tyranny that lie in                     wait beneath the surface,&#8221; as the superb 20th century novelist                     and essayist Aldous Huxley wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Equally thin and precarious is the veneer of civilization                     with which modern man has managed to cover himself &#8211; a veneer                     that was rubbed away by bloodthirsty demagogues many times                     in the 20th century. In a passage written in the 1930s which                     presaged the manifold horrors ahead, the doyen of journalism                     in his time, Walter Lippmann, wrote: &#8220;Men have been barbarians                     much longer than they have been civilized&#8230;and within us                     there is a propensity, persistent as the force of gravity,                     to revert under stress and strain, under neglect and temptation,                     to our first nature.&#8221; In that first nature, the instinct of                     decency, such as it is, comes a dim second to savagery.<\/p>\n<p>However, at the same time as the walls of various parts                     of the world have been spattered with innocent blood, a spark                     of decency has shone through the darkness. It was, for instance,                     that spark that caused non-Jews in Europe to risk their lives                     hiding their Jewish neighbours from the Nazis during World                     War II.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the forces that would extinguish it in an undisciplined,                     unprincipled and self-indulgent world, the spark of decency                     continues to flicker among the masses of ordinary people the                     world over. Like the original gift of fire, it should be assiduously                     protected, defended and nourished if human beings are not                     to slip back into the darkness of barbarity, as they have                     so many times in the past.<\/p>\n<p>Published by Royal Bank of Canada.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[1],"rbc_letter_theme":[],"rbc_letter_year":[83],"class_list":["post-4063","rbc_letter","type-rbc_letter","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized","rbc_letter_year-83"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>November 2000 - The Decent Thing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/about-us\/history\/letter\/november-2000-the-decent-thing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"November 2000 - The Decent Thing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Decency is not a highfalutin word &#8211; not up there with related words like humanity, dignity and honour. 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