49. Integrity requires respect for the integrity of others
SPs should respect the integrity of others, because there is a core to everyone that should remain intact.This integrity breaks down into (1) psychological, (2) physical, and (3) emotional sides. Whether they have substantial power or very little, SPs run the risk of infringing the integrity of others. The best way to respect the integrity of others is to value it.
So far we have focused on the integrity of SPs themselves, but others also have integrity. Aristotle stated that a politician must recognize people’s dignity and honor them as people.267
Integrity requires that SPs respect and value the integrity of others, because everyone has a core that should remain intact.268 This integrity breaks down into psychological, physical, and emotional sides.
A person’s integrity includes psychological integrity, the autonomy and freedom to think. According to the philosopher Kant, it is this autonomy, this ability to reason, which makes people human.269 Infringing this autonomy is an essential infringement of a person’s integrity. Integrity therefore demands that others refrain from infringing this autonomy, for example through manipulation, brainwashing, or blackmail. This is the problem with dictatorships, where the will of the people is subordinated to the will of those in power and freedom of thought is restricted. A dictatorship can arise not only in countries, but also in parties, teams, committees, and organizations.
Integrity also has a physical aspect. Many SPs have lost their positions for infringing the physical integrity of another, for instance by sexual harassment. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, director general of the International Monetary Fund, handed in his resignation when he was remanded in custody after accusations by a hotel employee that he assaulted her in his hotel room.270
Israeli president Moshe Katsav also stepped down due to rape, indecent acts, and sexual harassment of several women, receiving a seven year prison sentence.271 Similarly a councilor who made six women carry out sexual acts in exchange for subsidized accommodation was forced to step down. Infringing people’s physical integrity is a serious transgression, because it damages their dignity and unity, affecting their right to self-determination over their own bodies. Strauss-Kahn later admitted to having committed a moral error.272
There is also an emotional side to integrity. Emotional or mental integrity is a person’s psychological completeness and unity. People who are stressed out, confused, or disturbed, lack emotional integrity. Integrity therefore requires that people do not terrorize one another, string one another along, or injure one another. A prime minister made a hurtful remark, publicly calling one of the state secretaries in his party “an ill-suited little man”. Another prime minister terrorized a political opponent in the cabinet, keeping him under surveillance. It is also hurtful to leave people hanging, strip them of their titles, only give them the unpleasant jobs, or send them on a wild goose chase. A councilor resigned when an investigation found that he had intimidated officials with his robust style, causing anxiety in others. Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has a record of making denigrating remarks. He stated publicly that fascist dictator Benito Mussolini had never murdered anyone, a German member of the European parliament was cut out for the role of kapo273 in a new Italian film about a Nazi concentration camp, leftwing voters were “mentally handicapped” and should be put in psychiatric hospitals, Barack Obama was tanned, that the people of Abruzzo affected by an earthquake should see their temporary accommodation in tents as a weekend of camping, and that it is more honorable to be passionate about a beautiful young woman than an ugly homosexual.274 Such remarks lead to outrage because they touch people’s integrity and disturb them emotionally. For that reason there was also a commotion when Japanese deputy prime minister Tarō Asō said that the healthcare system should be changed so that terminal patients who were receiving expensive treatments “can quickly pass away” adding, “I cannot sleep well when I think of myself receiving expensive treatments by using government money.”275
The relationship between infringing the integrity of others and having power is twofold. On the one hand having more power offers more opportunities to infringe integrity. After all, power is the ability to influence others against their own will. The more power you have, the easier it is to influence others in undesirable ways, and the more you infringe someone’s integrity the more you display your power. On the other hand, infringing the integrity of others indicates that you have little power. In order to increase your own power you eliminate opponents, exploit weaknesses, and make personal attacks. By intimidating others you degrade them while also elevating yourself. “To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves,” said historian Will Durant.276