About Honour

Charles Dickens writes - 'it was the best of times, it was the worst of times...' Have you ever survived a period in your life that this quote simply sums up to a tee? I believe I have and probably haven't even fully recovered from the experience. In the midst of such situations, one matter that tends to arise and have a thread coursing through is the question of honour. How honourably are the people around the situation acting over the period? Are the actions being taken considered honourable? As flawed as we are as humans, the question of honour is still an important question to ask regardless of circumstance.

Consider many of the periods of significant transformation the world has seen: the industrial revolution, the French revolution, the Suffragette movement.....these were dangerous times, times of great upheaval, with loss of life and property and general torment; and yet, they were also times of great hope and excitement, considering a future that never had been but had the potential to come into being, enfranchising those who had hitherto been denied a seat at the table, giving rise to new ways of living that levelled the playing field between the haves and have-nots. The motto of the French Revolution captures the dream perfectly - Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity/Brotherhood). One may surmise that our current epoch, with its innovations in technology and the rise of AI, also produces similar aspirations such as the right to empowerment, access and collective participation. It is fraught with similar concerns, such as that of cybersecurity, in the midst of the bright future it envisages.

And thus, the question of the role of people, in the age of the machine, rears its head as it is the one constant for as long as the earth spins on its axis. In the struggle for change, in the pursuit of a new era of human progress, what decisions do we make to not only advance the fate of the human race, but also hedge for negative externalities. In the scenario where there are dire consequences to a group of stakeholders, do we still proceed? These are the sorts of questions that border on what is considered honourable or not. When we investigate the dispute between Sam Altman and Elon Musk about the direction OpenAI was supposed to take, we see these very questions at play. Originally intended to be a non-profit ensuring Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) benefited humanity, the pressing need for money to fund the enormous vision forced conversations around for-profit structures around the business to better attract capital. Where contention truly surfaced surrounded which company, for all intents and purposes, got afforded the opportunity to play in the arena of where ownership, control and governance lay. And doesn't this ring an all-too familiar sounding bell? Do we stand for causes for the sake of these causes or really only when we stand to gain personally from them?

At the micro-level of our own personal and professional lives, do we see similar instances of these dilemmas? In our families and in our jobs, when there are major transitions and shifts, do we deceive ourselves into thinking we are doing things for God and country when we are, in actual fact, doing it for ourselves? In our part of the world in Africa where there is the tendency to overly-spiritualize our intentions, you find a leaning towards Bible passages and quotes such as Matthew 11:12 that are used to justify any reward or 'blessing' a professed believer receives regardless of how that good thing was acquired or whosoever's toes were stepped on to attain it. In essence, the verse and its usage, often used in vain, and in isolation and outside of its full context, thrives on 'othering' to exercise its claim. For there to be a hero, the other must be painted a villain, however unscrupulously the so-called 'hero' in this case may have come to attain and maintain that status. Wouldn't it, therefore, not be more honourable to admit self-centred intent in this case? That, I believe, depends on whether honour is really of much import to the individual.

There is, in actual fact, a better and more honourable alternative to merely professing self-interest in circumstances of contest, power vacuums and all such seeming zero-sum game scenarios. This is the act of stepping down, backing off and, in effect, letting go of power. True honour requires sacrifice and as one can see throughout history, the major shifts in the world's evolution have involved the transference of power from one quarter of power to another. In the industrial revolution, where issues of fair wages arose, the traditional owners of capital had to cede some of the value created by new factories and machination to workers in the wake of the creation of trade unions and the like. It can be argued, however, that this particular example has to do with power that is transferred due to obligation or force rather than being done by freedom of will. It is the sacrifice that is offered freely that we are truly after.

On the same matter of fair wages and compensation, there are and always will be industries that are still struggling with fair and equal pay. Again, in most parts of Africa, where institutions are weak and we are still effectively trying to build the structures that provide sustainable and dignified employment in some of these industries, much like the purposes of The Indigen Group, it is important to ensure that there is adequate compensation for work done, even if it is in the Arts. The performing arts, like any other industry involves a set of specialized skills, and effort and time is expended to deliver any output. Those services, thus, must be compensated for according to the same standards accorded to any other professional service. If you cannot afford it, don't request for it. Be willing to pay decent fees: this is fair, and this is honourable.

Decent fees are the minimum that can be asked for in an economic climate that tends to disproportionately reward certain professions and industries at the expense of others for no better reason than 'this is the way of the world' or 'this is what the world is used to'. A business owner would do well to understand that fundamentally he/she knows best what their business needs than any consultant or 'expert' ever could. Of course, the business owner would surely benefit from specialized legal, financial, or other advice; however, this advice cannot and should not override the business intuition and peculiar business knowledge that comes from running one's own business for 10, 20 or 30 years. After all, the experts will come and go, even in your hard times, and you will be no more than a footnote in their CV or case study in their portfolio whilst you remain to mop up any messes. Not to mention that, given enough power, they also may not hesitate to replace you in your own business if it serves their interests enough. 'It's just business', as is often said. Honour, oh honour, where can thou be found?

There are those who would erroneously take pleasure in the fall of others when these shifts take place, in complete ignorance to the fact that nature does not discriminate. Choosing to mock the man who is down is never a good idea seeing as no one can be certain when their own fall from grace may arrive. There are ebbs and flows in life, and this begs for a certain humility. The same applies to those who would deny others opportunities due to their perceived denial of similar opportunities or privileges in their own past. This is also not honourable. Businesses must stay purposeful and families must stay tight-knit. The family unit is God's perfect model of an institution through which the greatest of success, blessing and progress might arrive. Betraying family loyalty is done at one's own peril. The crack in your family unit that you disregard leaves room for inflitration by those who have merely coveted what you have had and didn't cherish. That is a less than favorable new reality. Stay loyal to your teams, your organization, your family - keep the unity. Your inability to do so should beg your exit.

The parlance of today speaks to being unapologetic about the lives we lead no matter how self-interested. Thus, even if this means trying to invalidate the life and experience of the other person so that we might feel validated, we are more than open to it; we feel justified. We should understand that the opportunistic nature of the times and dispensation we are in sometimes blurs the lines of victim and perpetrator: it is the era of fake news and thus it is important to always question the source of all information. One must beware of the danger of a single story, as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie so elegantly puts it. I would like to believe that I've lived long enough to know that sometimes people who may have been wrongfully accused or treated may never get vindicated in their lifetime. They may become the scapegoat, covering all the sins of the family and the workplace; they are only given credit when someone else stands to gain or has had a personal hand in their success story. They've lived being sold on the need to look out for wider group interests whilst everyone but themselves had been pursuing personal interests all along. This is the reason why honour is so crucial in this day and age, and it has particular traits:

1. If the interests are one-sided, such as espousing the need for one party to save money without the other being fairly compensated, it is not honour.

2. If it is a one-sided story, such that information is attained from one party and not the other in order to make conclusions, it is not honour.

3. If power is usurped, rightful entitlement or privileges are denied, or authority is undermined for the sake of a 'cause' it is likely not honour; there might be some self-interest at play.

These being but a few traits, the effects of not considering the importance of honour in our affairs may be akin to not considering gravity in our lives. As someone once said to me, just because you might not believe in gravity does not mean you will not experience its effects. Something to think about.