Stoic Week 5/5: Integrity

Note: Epictetus, Seneca and Aurelius examined fictional characters like Medea, Odysseus, and Hercules through a Stoic lens. Inspired, I apply the Stoic orientation to the messed-up impressions of characters in the TV stories of the original Perry Mason (1957 - 1966) and then I ordered the ghost in the machine to recast the review in the style of Epictetus.  In TCOT Curious Bride, Perry Mason says, “What right have I got to sit back with that 'holier than thou' attitude and expect [clients] to come clean with a total stranger? They come here when they're in trouble. They're worried and frightened. They come to me for consultations. I'm a total stranger to them. They need help. Poor fools, you can't blame them for resorting to subterfuges.”

The Case the Resolute Reformer (Season 4, Episode 14, 1/14/61)

Let us consider the tale of Hoyt, the County Civil Engineer - a man who sought to raise his son by the book, not just any book, but the one written by the upright sages of cinema, Tracy and Heston, on ethics and integrity. Hoyt believed that if he held his son to the highest standards, the boy would rise to meet them. But the Stoic knows: you cannot force virtue into another as you would pour water into a jar. You may guide, you may model, but you cannot command the soul of another.

Hoyt’s son, unable to meet his father’s impossible expectations, turned instead to wine and folly. And in his drunken missteps, he became the pawn of a ruthless man in construction, who used a society girl to bait the boy and compromise the father. The target was not the son - it was Hoyt. The upright man must fall, so the dishonest may rise.

This is the ingenuity of the wicked: they do not fight fair, because they do not fight with reason. They fight with manipulation, with bribery, with the corruption of the weak. And yet, the Stoic does not despair. For what is corruption but the inevitable pursuit of reputation, position, influence in any political system? Wishing for a world free of corruption is like longing for figs in winter.

Hoyt’s assistant Kent, bribed and broken, confesses in court that Hoyt once told him, “Your judgment is not sound.” And Perry Mason, who speaks here with the clarity of a Stoic, replies, “Well, yes. Hoyt was right. If your judgment had been sound, you wouldn’t have taken bribes.”

This is the heart of the matter. The Stoic does not ask whether the world is fair. He asks whether he himself is just. He does not demand that others be perfect. He forgives their ignorance, their weakness, their vanity. He knows that anger at others’ faults is a kind of madness - a refusal to accept that people are as they are.

High standards? Keep them - for yourself. For others, offer patience. Offer understanding. Offer the kind of mercy you will one day need. For we all stumble. We all forget. We all fall short.

And when the world tries to drag you into its chaos, remember: the only thing you truly control is your response. Choose reason. Choose compassion. Choose not to be like them.