This is a phrase I often use for myself. I refuse to let myself fall into the stereotype of the average man, especially the "white good ol' boys club" mentality. I know I am so much more than that. I'm curious if I'm unique in this. Are there other men who not only are men but also stand up to fight against the "isms" of the world, to be men of integrity?

Yeah, Linus! I try my best to have integrity in this world.  I know what it feels like to be marginalized and discriminated against.  I aspire to be a good man, partly to be a good male role model for my two sons.  This is super important to me.

Integrity is the quality of consistency between one's values and actions; there are a great many men of integrity in this world, the vast majority of whom do not share your values (or even respect them).  Are you asking how many men cultivate integrity, or how many men subscribe to your expressed ideology?

- N

I like to consider myself "honorable".
Or at least, I strive to be.

I suspect that the overwhelming majority of men questioned consider themselves to be men of integrity; I consider moral and intellectual integrity to be the very heart of my career and the central preoccupation of my public and private life.  The majority of my values and subsequent ethics are, I expect, diametrically opposed to your own.

If we assume that the matter at hand is, as Kvall pointed out, internal moral and intellectual consistency rather than a question of particular conviction, then the question of integrity seems to be a difficult one to pose: in the negative, you can ask if someone disagrees with you, you can ask if they are incapable of translating their values into ethics, or you can ask if they refuse to form moral positions.  The first does not reflect the issue, the second is equivalent to asking someone if they are simply too cognitively deficient to function, and the last is asking someone if they do the impossible, given that value judgments are implicit in all actions.  Assuming that you were to find men to take these positions, the first would be irrelevant, the second could not answer, and the third cannot exist.

I don't see how the question can have more than one answer.  Am I missing something?

- N

Quote from: Kvall on May 29, 2010, 04:25:04 PM
Someone could literally have integrity without valuing integrity...

I suspect that this describes most people; to have integrity is to value the coherence of one's mind as a floating abstraction, but to value integrity as a concept requires a cognitively admissible, which is to say a rationally reducible, abstraction, which, in turn, presupposes an explicit epistemology.  I don't see that often.

Quote from: Kvall on May 29, 2010, 04:25:04 PM
...it seems as though you are saying that you value the Good Old Boy's Club mentality and the various -isms he referenced.

The terms 'Good Old Boys Club' and the use of the suffix '-ism' as an intellectual and moral pretense constitute both a deviation from the original topic and an informal fallacy known as a linquistic presupposition, or 'loaded question.'  If you wish to raise the issue, I suggest that you do so in a directly relevant thread, or I can address it privately.

Quote from: Kvall on May 29, 2010, 04:25:04 PM
Although most people will probably answer that they have integrity, I don't think Linus is asking for a simple poll. He's asking how we relate to integrity as men when we frequently see men acting with hypocrisy and lack of accountability.

That is a fine question, if very open-ended.  I'd love to hear everyone's answers.

- N

Ignoring the spat that is currently brewing in here.  It is my simple and straight forward opinion that you should treat others as you would want to be treated.  I tend to see the best in people and forgive the bad which does tend to backfire on me from time to time.

Of course I really don't see myself ever fitting into a 'good old boys' group.  I will always be a very gay flamboyant male and not someone they would choose to relate to.  If it is possible to educate on the idea that we are not all deviant freaks or damned to hell then I would happily take that opportunity.  Which is why I have been fielding questions that many would find extremely offensive from my relations since coming out.   Doing my best to be patient and understanding as I do so.  They have no basis for what I have just laid in their lap.  Sometimes it just takes a bit of redirection and understanding and relating to help them see that their prejudices are unfounded.   

I think integrity is an important thing to strive for, but after waiting so long to be part of the guys.. sometimes I find myself going along with that "white good ol' boys club mentality". saying that it's to fit in doesn't make it right, and probably makes me come across as a hypocrite the other times that I do say something.. but I think that to be a man of integrity is more of an internal battle to adhere consistently to your morals and ethics.. than of a battle against the world and its faults

Noticed this pretty much right off after going full time. I just can't be a member of that club. I decided I have done so much to be who I really am the last thing I want to do is conform to yet what someone else says I should be/act just because I am male.
Myles

Before I acknowledged my identity as male I was a bit of an eccentric, and that hasn't changed.  Being given "passage" into "manhood" isn't going to change the fact that I find difficulty in identifying with others and would rather not conform or behave in a group-focused fashion.  Considering oneself a part of the "white good ol' boys club", or whatever you want to call it, doesn't seem altogether different from what the Nazis did, does it?  Along with that strong identification to a group, there is that same warped sense of entitlement.

Integrity usually means uniform, or unified; and in people, honesty to one's principles, as I think it was already mentioned.  People everywhere believe their principles are the right ones, which doesn't necessarily make it so.  That said, I think true integrity does come from being true to oneself and above all else, true to others.  Of having an idea of what is right and what is wrong when it comes to how others are treated.  That doesn't just come down to opinion; it is clear to see how our actions harm other people.  Being a person of integrity, then, isn't completely based on an individual's fashioned morals.