{"id":315,"date":"2007-08-29T18:58:37","date_gmt":"2007-08-29T23:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theholtsite.com\/wordpress\/2007\/08\/29\/character-power-and-anonymity\/"},"modified":"2007-08-29T18:58:37","modified_gmt":"2007-08-29T23:58:37","slug":"character-power-and-anonymity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theholtsite.com\/blog\/315\/","title":{"rendered":"Character, Power, and Anonymity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>And now it&#8217;s time for a philosophical discussion.  I was thinking about this driving home in my super-fast car, toddling along like a slug compared to the rest of New England&#8217;s homebound workforce.  I was thinking that a true test of character occurs when you have power coupled with anonymity.  Two examples came to mind.<\/p>\n<p>First, there was me at that very moment.  I was driving along with a powerful car and no bumper stickers labeling me as a Christian, lover of milk, Apple fan, etc.  It was well within my power to totally blow by every other car on the road, and my reputation was secure (unless I got into an accident).  This is what started me on this train of thought.<\/p>\n<p>Another example:  Let&#8217;s say you were given complete invisibility at will, sort of like Harry Potter&#8217;s invisibility cloak.  What would you do?  You just became very powerful AND anonymous.  Harry never uses it for evil (it&#8217;s a kid&#8217;s book, after all), but I wonder how many people immediately think of all the naked people they could see or money they could steal.  That would be a good test of character.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, being anonymous, the only person that sometimes knows about your character is you.  Ah, except when you become a Christian.  Suddenly, you realize that there is no such thing as anonymity!<\/p>\n<p>Some quotes to consider:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The measure of a man&#8217;s character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out.&#8221; &#8211; THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY (1800-1859) &#8212; British writer and politician <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The best index to a person&#8217;s character is (a) how he treats people who can&#8217;t do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can&#8217;t fight back.&#8221; &#8211; ABIGAIL VAN BUREN (&#8220;Dear Abby&#8221;) advice columnist<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Everyone tries to define this thing called Character. It&#8217;s not hard. Character is doing what&#8217;s right when nobody&#8217;s looking.&#8221; &#8211; C. Watts<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Nearly all men can stand adversity. But if you want to test a man&#8217;s character, give him power.&#8221; &#8211; Abraham Lincoln<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And now it&#8217;s time for a philosophical discussion. I was thinking about this driving home in my super-fast car, toddling along like a slug compared to the rest of New England&#8217;s homebound workforce. I was thinking that a true test of character occurs when you have power coupled with anonymity. Two examples came to mind. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theholtsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theholtsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theholtsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theholtsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theholtsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theholtsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theholtsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theholtsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theholtsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}