66. Integrity is the midway between two evils
Integrity demands that SPs strive for good and avoid evil, as the absence or opposite of good. However, it also demands that SPs do not go too far by doing too much of a good thing, as that is bad too. Focusing on avoiding going over the top can help SPs take decisions and judge themselves and others.
Integrity is about striving for ideals, values, and principles. Integrity demands that SPs make efforts to do good and avoid evil or wrongdoing, the absence or even opposite of good. Dishonesty, for example, is the opposite of honesty, and injustice the opposite of justice. However, there is another, less well-known, undesirable side to good.
According to Aristotle, a virtue is the midway between two vices or evils. These two vices are two undesirable extremes diametrically opposed to one another. One vice is the absence or opposite of the virtue, the other an excess of the virtue. Overconfidence, for example, is excessive bravery, and extravagance is excessive generosity.
Integrity means not only striving for good and avoiding bad as the opposite of good, but also ensuring that you do not go too far and strive for excessive good. Too much of a good thing is not good either. Integrity is looking for the midway between two evils, although this midway may not be the geometric midpoint.
SPs should realize that in striving for ideals, values, and principles with the best of intentions, they must not go too far, but should to hold the middle ground between vices. They should avoid following the example of one prime minister who, driven to excesses by a sense of vocation and great responsibility, went too far in dominance, contrariness, and pushiness, thereby frustrating many of his own ideals.394
Thinking in terms of excess is useful because it can ensure a valuable and surprising contribution to discussions, debates, and decision making. People often do not think about this, because they are more focused on determining and striving for what is good than on thinking about the risks involved in achieving good. For example, solidarity might become injustice if it goes too far, likewise setting rules might become paternalistic and enforcing rules might become callousness.
At the same time this is a tried and tested way of criticizing people. Instead of pointing to a lack of good qualities, people point to someone going too far and having too much of a good thing. By expanding the good characteristics and extending them they turn them into disadvantages. SPs with a good sense of humor may be depicted as laughing off everything and may fail to see the seriousness of situations. Similarly SPs who are good listeners may be depicted as indecisive, and those with strong opinions as authoritarian. It is therefore important that SPs do not take their virtues too far but find and practice the midway.