Finally, Some Honesty!

A story in Monday's Crimson told a tale of simple honesty, a refreshing change in a year in which a multitude of student thefts came to light. Paul K. Kim '96 and Vanessa V. Gil '97 returned $3,000 they found in the street to its owner, Tommy's House of Pizza. To take the money would have been the easiest and safest from of theft imaginable, a great reward for little effort, virtually untraceable.

In direct contrast, several Harvard students have been accused and even convicted in the past year of stealing major amounts of money from various extracurricular activities. Most people are familiar with the most egregious of these acts, in which three years ago, Charles K. Lee '93 stole almost $120,000 from An Evening With Champions, a charity event run by Eliot House intended to benefit children with cancer. But there have been several other incidents in which students have abused the trust given them and embezzled thousands of dollars from the groups of which they were members.

These incidents' have brought to my mind a concern over a basic principle which is inherent in any society and yet which is often ignored in ours in favor of more complex but less essential issues: the principle of honesty.

Of course, we deal with the results of honesty and dishonesty all the time. The thefts I have mentioned are all obviously examples of dishonesty, and we condemn them on a case by case basis. But we rarely extrapolate from these specific examples to a more general discussion of the scruples of the society in which we live. I find this surprising, considering how highly moralized America is, and how highly moralizing Americans are.

We raise heated debate over what words we can say on television, and over what types of photographs can hang in museums. We scold our public figures furiously for their infidelities and like to take the moral high ground. But there is a fundamental lack of substantive respect for the concept that it is necessary and right to deal honestly with one's fellow man.

We are all subject, constantly, to the temptation to further our own fortunes by taking advantage of others, and our ability to resist this temptation is the result of a lifetime of learning and experience. The most common arguments for acting honestly, such as "it's the right thing to do" and "do unto others..." seem trite, corny and often fall on deaf ears. Quite simply, when viewed by themselves these phrases seem no more than empty shells and offer no good reason why we should pass up $3,000 in exchange for a bit of rhetoric.

But there is a very good reason why the earliest moral codes developed by humanity command us to refrain from, say, stealing or committing adultery. The moral catch phrases mentioned above seem hollow because they are the mere reflection of this fundamental principal. Quite simply, basic honesty is the absolute foundation upon which any successful and benign society must rest. If this foundation is absent, basic human happiness and liberty begin to crumble away.

We can look at how honesty is necessary throughout society by examining the effects of its absence in our daily lives, our civil society and our government.

On the most elemental level, in order to live happy and productive lives we must be able to trust those with whom we interact on a daily basis. We must be able to trust storekeepers to give us our money's worth, we must be able to trust strangers not to rob or manhandle us, and we must be able to trust our friends with our secrets and our valuables.

The less this trust exists, the more the quality of life degenerates. Paranoia replaces goodwill, and the time and energy we must expend to protect ourselves from malefactors saps our individual and collective strength. This is true no matter what type of society we discuss.

On a higher level, trust is essential to the smooth functioning of an economically advanced society. The more costly checks an employer must institute to ensure his customers and employees aren't stealing, the fewer he is able to expand his business, the fewer people he is able to hire. One quick example which has stuck in my mind: an employee at Urban Outfitters in the square once told me that the store's annual losses to shoplifting were several times his annual salary.

And when one company refuses to honor its commitments to another company, the costly and time-consuming litigation that inevitably follow can bring business practically to a standstill.

And on the highest level, when we progress from dictatorship or oligarchy to the type of democratic government that we entrust to safeguard our lives and liberty, honesty becomes absolutely essential. The very definition of a democracy is a society in which the government is given a mandate by the people to serve the people.

Therefore, any corruption within the government, by definition, reduces the effectiveness and legitimacy of that government. When politicians care more about lining their pockets or gaining power than protecting their constituents and the law, our quality of life will surely degenerate. When President Richard Nixon abandoned honesty and attempted to rig his chances of winning the presidency, he came closer than any man has ever come to staging a coup and subverting our democracy.

I'm not a pessimist--I feel that our society is generally an honest one. I'm not a starry eyed optimist either--I don't feel that a completely honest society is either possible, or necessary, nor do I expect any individual to be a perfect angel.

But I am concerned when I read that individuals who are supposedly the best and the brightest, the future leaders of society, blatantly steal large amounts of money and betray their friends' trust. Embezzlement, shoplifting, cheating on exams and lying all act to undermine the general welfare. I don't want to preach, but I want to conclude with this thought: if you can't act honestly for unselfish reasons, do it for selfish ones. Do it because it will help to make your life and your society better in the long run.

When Paul and Vanessa returned the money to Tommy's, their action wasn't appreciated. They weren't even thanked, let alone offered a free pizza. Perhaps the employees had no personal stake in the matter, or perhaps they even thought less of the two for passing up such an opportunity. This type of sentiment is all too common. But for what it's worth, I appreciate what these two students did. Hell, I'd buy them that pizza.