Reputation & Integrity: What Other people think, and to what level do we care about it, and its effects upon society, civilization and self awareness.

[The Cat]

What do we think about these concepts. What are our philosophies of interaction with our fellow sentient beings? Does it matter? If so how so, if not why not... What's in a name? How does what people think about us impact how we think of ourselves, and what does that look like on a larger scale?

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Integrity is important to me. Most people don't get it.

Reputation is something many people care about, and it is important to me, too, more than I care to admit. We can say it doesn't matter but I actually think it does.

 

[ceecee]

One issue I have with the word integrity is that is seems people often think it means what HR and cooperate-speak have defined it. Loyalty (to the company), respect (for management) and so on. In reality, integrity means being honest and having strong moral principles. That's the way I try to apply it to myself. Do what you say you will, be straightforward and honest with others, treat others as you would want to be treated generally.

I think active pursuit of a good reputation is pointless because if you focus on maintaining an image, not actually living up to it (lack of accountability, doing anything to get ahead, unethical behavior...), people figure that out. You may appear to have it all but people will still consider you a piece of shit.

 

[Luminous]

Integrity, as ceecee defines above, is vitally important to me. And it's purely internal in nature; it's whether I live up to my own values in a reasonable way. If others can't see it, it doesn't mean I don't have it.

Reputation...

Okay, that isn't as true as I would like it to be. I do care, to a certain extent, but only about certain things, from certain people. If I were acting with integrity and doing what I considered good, and I got a reputation as a troublemaker or exception finder or bitch or whatever with a bunch of assholes, well then I wouldn't give a damn...

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I think active pursuit of a good reputation is pointless because if you focus on maintaining an image, not actually living up to it (lack of accountability, doing anything to get ahead, unethical behavior...), people figure that out. You may appear to have it all but people will still consider you a piece of shit.

People can also consider you a piece of shit for being a weird loner, basically. You don't have to do a lot of actively bothering people to be considered a piece of shit.

For instance, being quiet and a loner can cause people to decide that "they think they're better than everyone else." You've never heard of this? I'm fairly certain this happened to me. A girl once asked me if I thought I was better than everyone else, which suggests that there were other people around who thought that was the case. Otherwise, I don't understand how this even became a question.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I'd rather people not believe that I think I'm better everyone else. Hence, reputation matters to me. There are a lot of other ways a bad reputation can get attached to someone that they don't necessarily deserve.