Charlie Collins Portrait
Charles A. Collins

About the Honor Blog

This blog has been created for the purpose of exploring controversial moral problems, using the concepts explored in The Book of Honor as a foundation. Since it seeks to tackle difficult problems, readers should approach it with serious minds and should expect to have their prejudices challenged. However, an element which is central to The Book of Honor is that there are things upon which all normal humans will agree. This blog seeks out those things - it focuses on areas of agreement, rather than disagreement, so that the discussion can remain positive even in the face of serious disagreements.

The Gratiae

One of the most important conclusions reached in The Book of Honor is that acting in a good and moral way means giving value to other persons. The things which represent that value are called the gratiae, and in The Book of Honor, we learn there are three of those things:
Vitality,
Liberty, and
Dignity.

Good actions are those which support human life, which recognize the freedom and dignity of other persons. Immoral, evil actions are those which deprive persons of their lives, deny them their freedom, and/or destroy their dignity.

The Virtues

The purpose of The Book of Honor is to establish a code of conduct, a set of factors which will guide persons toward honorable behavior. Those factors are summarized in the form of seven Virtues:
Wisdom,
Courage,
Compassion,
Discipline,
Industry,
Hope, and
Humility.

These Virtues are used to guide honorable behavior; a person who considers and applies the Virtues when making decisions, when taking action, will serve the gratiae - and act in a good, moral way.

About the Author

Hopefully most of your questions about me are answered by the About page. However, within the context of this blog, I think it also is important for me to point out that:

Inevitably, controversial subjects will touch upon the political arena. There is no way to remove all bias from a discussion - so I believe the best thing I can do is to let you know that I am Catholic, and inclined toward conservatism.

Previous Posts


Jan 16, 2022: Un-Masking Motivations

Sep 22, 2021: Thalidomide

Apr 4, 2021: Escaping Politics

Aug 31, 2020: Handling Embarrassing Flaws

Jun 19, 2020: A Sign of Sickness in Education

May 10, 2020: Noble Self-Sacrifice

The Honor Blog

Today is: Apr 3, 2025
Post From: Apr 4, 2021

Escaping Politics

Well, it has been quite some time since I posted anything here. The reason is pretty simple: politics. Last fall, as I watched the political scene unfolding, watched what was happening to the public conversation, I ran into trouble figuring out how to post something non-political.

As I have been wrestling with this, I find myself wondering why it is important to remove politics from our conversations. After all, political questions are important - they have to do with the level of freedom we experience as Americans, and that is meaningful and worth discussing. After all, it is only with good conversations that we will be able to safeguard our freedoms in the healthiest way possible - we need to make good decisions.

However, for some reason, political conversation is . . . well, dangerous, right now. I see two factors producing that situation - and while I don't know what to do about them, I think it has to help if we can get them out in the open.

The first thing I see is that there is a great deal of hate and rage which appears almost instantly in public conversations. Disagreement is not met with an attempt to understand - it is met with rage and violence.

The other thing that I see is that activists seem intent on forcing political issues into every aspect of our lives. For much of its history, there was a spirit of "live and let live" which infused the American experience. That is gone - activists seem intent on driving their political views into every facet of American life.

These are serious problems. Honestly, I would rather not talk about politics all the time. As I said, I think those conversations are important, and I would like to be able to engage in them, so that Americans can make good decisions about governance - but I really would rather talk about other things most of the time.

Interestingly, I am not sure my kids see that. I think they feel that I bring political topics up all the time. However, my perception is that I am not, in fact, the originator - I am reacting, rather than starting the conversation.

I don't know - maybe I am wrong. But I suggest you spend a moment reflecting on your recent conversations. Did you find yourself having to choose your words carefully during any of them? Most of them? All of them?

I don't think it is healthy the way we are forced to censor ourselves on a daily basis, in conversations which should be either innocuous or safe for honest disagreement.