Integrity and Rules

Over the last ten years or so, there seems to have been a lot of rules added to our lives. As I considered that thought, this quote from Albert Camus came to mind.

I believe Camus is right, true integrity has little need for rules. As a matter of fact, the more rules that are added to our lives indicates, to me, an absence of integrity. And, when there is an absence of integrity there is a greater need for rules.

Where can we find integrity these days? Defined, integrity is "a concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations, and outcomes." It is an adherence to moral and ethical principles; it is soundness of moral character. All of these collectively reference integrity and virtue.

I ask again, where can we find integrity? I find bits of this definition here and bits of it there, but the collective whole, I struggle to find. Who, consistently, does anything today? Where does one find soundness of moral character? Today, we find an inverted process. Instead of values and beliefs producing actions, we find actions producing values and beliefs. We tend to produce rules that allow or justify our current actions, and then adjust those rules as our actions change. 

Virtue is no longer a major part of the fabric of collective society, and integrity is no longer a major part of the individual fabric. Most of us live for ourselves. Our thoughts and actions are based on what is good for us at the moment. There is no consistent thread running through them or driving them. There is no greater good, no willingness to sacrifice for another and certainly there is less of doing what is right and more of doing what we think is right. Most of us live for contentment, comfort and happiness because, after all, we deserve all those things, right?

And, when we live lives marked by those three goals we become what is most important, and when we become what is most important... our rules will reflect that priority. There is only one problem; the more we become focused on ourselves the more diverse we become from each other. Then, life becomes about power and control, and whoever owns both makes the rules by which the rest of us live.

Where is God in this equation, you ask? He is there like He always has been, but He may be letting us have what we have wanted. There is plenty of support for this in scripture. God, at times, has chosen to be silent or to disengage for reasons He only knows. Is this one of those times? I do not know, but what I do know is that our current path seems more in line with us than Him.