CONSISTENT CHARACTER
THE edifice of human civilization is really just an extension of nature — man takes simple matter and converts it into buildings, machines, factories, industrial plants and all the other artefacts of the modern world. What enables him to do this is the fact that all matter has been invested by nature with certain constant properties. Once man has discovered these natural properties, he is able to use them to his own advantage. These properties make up the character of a substance; they are absolutely predictable — everything in nature can be relied upon to act in a certain way. All the advances of human civilization are the result of this predictability. Any change in the properties of basic matter, or unpredictability in its character, would reduce the whole of human civilization to ruins.
Society is only as good as the individuals who constitute it.
If we want to build a bridge across a river, we can use steel because we know we can rely on the strength of steel to hold up the bridge; if steel turned out to be as soft as wax the whole construction would crash into the water. For construction of buildings we use bricks and cement, which we are sure will solidify into a firm structure; if stones and cement were like a pile of sand, these buildings would collapse.
We know that when a magnetic field and motion come together the resultant movement of electrons will produce electricity; if this did not happen, the world would suddenly be plunged into darkness.
Such occurrences would mean that things had lost their specific character and the building of civilization would then become impossible. Human civilization can only be fashioned when the things that are essential to it do what is expected of them — while they maintain their basic character. What good would an ice-factory be, for instance, if the water that was put into it turned into steam instead of ice? How could cars and other machines be produced if iron cast into furnaces refused to melt?
Just as the things which contribute to human civilization have to display certain properties for civilization to flourish, so too the individuals who constitute human society have to do what is expected of them for society to run smoothly. They too have to maintain a certain character. The worth of all material objects is dependent upon their reliability in performing the functions that are expected of them. In the same way, a man’s worth depends on his ability to maintain a consistent character under all conditions. There are certain attributes that constitute a human character; only if one displays these attributes can one be counted as a true human being.
If a person does not display the facets of human character that are expected of him, all one can say is that he has lost his human worth. A society made up of such people is doomed to discontentment and unrest. Society is only as good as the individuals who constitute it. The inevitable result of inconsistent and irregular character on the part of individuals, then, is instability in the society to which they belong.
Corruption of human society comes into being when its members break their promises instead of keeping them; when they are petty instead of open-minded; when they are miserly instead of generous; when they think only of themselves instead of society as a whole; when they are vindictive instead of forgiving, rebellious instead of accommodating; when they vainly pursue their own interests instead of acknowledging the rights of others; when they seek to put down other people instead of lending them a helping hand; when, in short, people fail to treat others as they would have others treat them.
A society will only prove to be strong if its members prove to be human beings in the real sense of the word — if they display the character that is expected of them as human beings. Where resolve is required they should remain as solid as steel, where pliability is required, as soft as running water. They should remain as still as stones when silence is expected of them, as firm as mountains when constancy is the order of the day. When strong initiatives are required, their enthusiasm should cascade like a torrent. It is such people, those who speak and act as true human beings, who constitute a strong and stable human society.
Individuals of this nature are as indispensable to human society as commodities like fuel and steel are essential to human civilization. If the forces that contribute to civilization did not do what is expected of them, then civilization as we know it could not survive; so too if people do not show consistency, reliability and predictability in their character, human society will crumble.