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Virtue
Virtue
I do not admire the excess
of some on virtue unless I am shown at the same time the excess of the opposite
virtue. A man does not prove his greatness by standing at an extremity
but by
touching both extremities at once and filling all that lies between
them.—Blaise Pascal
What
does the cheating scandal at the U.S. Naval Academy say about military honor?
Last week
Navy investigators reported that 81 midshipmen had obtained a copy
of a 1992 engineering exam before exam day and that many of them then lied
during an internal investigation
some to protect classmates. Former Assistant
Secretary of Defense Richard Armitage
who chaired a review of the academy's
honor code
blames the widespread cheating on the Navy's emphasis on skills like
technical proficiency over character development. A 1967 Annapolis graduate
Armitage notes that one point of honor is still pounded into all midshipmen
from Day 1: "Never bilge (endanger) a shipmate." That credo cuts two
ways
says James Q. Wilson
author of The Moral Sense. It explains why
some midshipmen betrayed their personal honor by lying to protect their
classmates; but
says Wilson
those same people will never let their buddies
down during times of war. He adds
"I wouldn't worry that this indicates a
decaying moral fabric of the next generation of military
officers."
U.S.
News & World Report
February 7
1994
p. 12.
One
of the most famous trials in history was that of Benjamin Francois Courvoisier
in London in 1840
who is now immortalized in Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.
Courvoisier was a Swiss valet accused of slicing the throat of his elderly
employer
Lord William Russell. What made this trial notorious was the argument
for the defense. The police had bungled the investigation. The evidence against
Courvoisier was entirely circumstantial or had been planted. One of the
officers had perjured himself
and the maid's testimony brought suspicion on
herself. The defense attorney
Charles Phillips
was convinced of the innocence
of Courvoisier and cross-examined witnesses aggressively. At the beginning of
the second day of the trial
however
Courvoisier confessed privately to his
lawyer that he had committed the murder. When asked if he were going to plead
guilty
he replied to Charles Phillips
"No
sir
I expect you to defend
me to the utmost." Phillips was faced with a dilemma. Should he declare to
the court that the man was guilty
or should he defend Courvoisier as best he
could? Should he break the confidentiality of the client-lawyer relationship
or should he help a guilty man to possibly go free? Which is more
important--truth or professional duty?
Phillips
decided to defend the guilty man. But despite Phillips's efforts
Courvoisier
was convicted. When the dilemma was later made public
Phillips's decision to
defend a murderer horrified British society and brought him a great deal of
criticism.
Klyne
Snodgrass
Between Two Truths - Living with Biblical Tensions
1990
Zondervan Publishing House
pp. 11- 12.
Lying
cheating
and stealing are becoming an "acceptable norm" among
high-school and college students
says Ralph Wexler
speaking for the Joseph
and Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics. In a recent survey
the Institute
reported that 61 percent of the high-school and 32 percent of the college
students polled admitted to having cheated on an exam during the past year; 33
percent of the high-school and 16 percent of college students said they'd
stolen something in the last year; and 16 percent of the high-school and 32
percent of the college students said they'd lied on a resume or job
application.
National
and International Religion Report
quoted in Signs of the Times
June
1993
p. 6.