A Bad Act and a Worse Excuse

As one of the ancient philosophers said: “Where we wish to judge of weights, we do not judge haphazardly; where we wish to judge what is straight and what is crooked, we do not judge haphazardly.” We use standards. And if we wish to judge honestly, including our own, we must not judge haphazardly.

There is a line between what is and isn’t honest—and the difference between the two isn’t merely a matter of popular practice; it isn’t merely a matter of what other men do or don’t do. And yet we sometimes seek to justify ourselves in doing what we know we shouldn’t do because others are doing what they shouldn’t do. It seems we sometimes fail to see our own weakness by watching the weaknesses of others. In the words of Thomas a` Kempis: “We often do a bad act and make a worse excuse.”

Example is contagious, but if the bad example of others were to justify us, we could justify ourselves in almost anything simply by selecting the bad example we want to watch. We could justify ourselves in lying, cheating, swindling, deceiving, simply by saying to ourselves that others are doing as bad or worse, so why shouldn’t we? We can always find a bad example to follow. But there are also honest and honorable examples, and how can we condone following the wrong ones when we could just as well follow the right ones.

The things we shouldn’t do, we somehow know we shouldn’t do—and following a bad example offers no peace or protection or actual excuse for any of us.