76. Integrity reveals beauty
Integrity supplies not only power but also beauty. Integrity stands for harmony, purity, and authenticity. There is beauty in the way SPs understand fulfillment of their roles, elevating them to an art and inspiring affection. SPs should understand this art and allow others to enjoy it.
Integrity does not only give power, as we saw in the previous chapter, but also beauty. It has a splendor of its own.423 Are we going too far here? Does this make integrity overly idealistic?
Integrity stands for wholeness and flawlessness. A person with integrity is complete and flawless, without cracks, contamination, or distortion. However, a person’s beauty does not lie only in their flawlessness. Just as a painting, piece of music, or sports contest is beautiful not only because of an absence of cracks, wrong notes, or unsportsmanlike incidents, but primarily because of their harmony, purity, and authenticity. The colors, notes, and players fit together, creating a balanced whole. This shows what can be achieved from the combination of colors, musical notes, or players and how this can be optimally used.
We can also look at serving the people in this way. The beauty is more than just the absence of foul play and dirty practices. Beauty lies in harmony, purity, and authenticity. It resides in the purity of decision making, the passion of debate, the flawlessness of policy documents, and the harmonious interplay of different powers. It is also about how SPs understand the essence of their own positions and display it, for example by giving an animated talk, convincing opponents with pure arguments, cleverly bringing different parties together, and working heart and soul for others, in other words understanding the art of their position and elevating their position to an art.
According to some philosophers personal integrity is not something you can fall in love with,424 but revealing the beauty of integrity can inspire exaltation, admiration, and affection in others. Integrity is more than a term of praise. Integrity inspires affection, because integrity refers to people’s ideal image of an SP, an image people want to associate and identify with, because it fits with how they would like to be themselves both in their current positions and if they were to find themselves in the positions of SPs.
Just as people can enjoy the beauty of a painting, piece of music, or sports contest, they can enjoy the beauty of an SP position. SPs should understand this art so that the beauty becomes visible and they themselves, as well as others, can enjoy it.