Honor in the 21st Century

I’ve always been a student of human behavior. In that sense, I’ve been thinking a lot about honor lately. What does that mean, and is honorable still something people strive to be? I did a quick search of ‘what is honor’ on Google to see what’s been written recently on the subject.
There is no good definition of honor. I found one piece that described honor as “that thing that makes you act as if someone is watching, even when you know they're not.” It goes on to mention other things, like keeping your word or acknowledging mistakes, but it’s the first part I really like. Being honorable is being consistent with your actions – reliably doing the “right thing.” I put that in quotes because I doubt there’s agreement over what some consider right, but I think “right” is something most people want to be.

This leads me to my greater point – I don’t think many people care about honor anymore, especially those under 30. To illustrate, at work, take an informal mental survey of the people around you. How much time do they spend not working? Every time I walk by neighbor at work, she’s looking at houses, shopping sites, or where she’s going on vacation. I’m guessing she works maybe half the time she’s here – beyond the fact she comes in late and leaves early. By no means is she the only one.

Unfortunately among members of my generation, this attitude is the norm rather than the exception. The attitude of younger people, especially those right out of college, has changed significantly. Their expectations on work and pay do not align with reality. Their behavior only worsens the issue - minimal effort for maximum compensation. Many younger people think they should be running the show, in their first job out of college. How many times does that happen? I'll give you a hint - it's less than the number of supermodels I've dated.

I think the trend of younger people expectations is at least correlated with a decline in the sense of honor in society. I have nothing to prove this but it makes sense. Honorable people don't think they deserve something they don't earn. They would not believe they should be compensated more than they deserve. They recognize that effort determines success, not just attendance. The more I observe people mailing it in where I work, the more I think the concept of honor could use a comeback.

Ironically enough, when I searched for honor, the fourth website I found was called cheathouse.com, and had an essay on honor that you could buy and pass off as your own. This is wonderfully ironic, at the same time providing a sad commentary.