Everyone Needs A Good Name
- Category: Inner Happiness
- Date 18-05-2025
- 18 views
According to the scripture, “… a good name is more desirable than great riches…” (Proverbs 22:1). A good name is the positive opinion that people have about someone. It is a result of doing what others believe is right or behaving in ways that society perceives as decorous, acceptable and dignified.
A good name comes from a person’s conformity to the cherished values and expectations of society, which sets standards of behaviour and expects individuals to uphold these ideals. The social standards that communities set are intended for the good of everyone and form the basis for earning a good name. By nature, everyone desires to be on good terms with other people, and desires to be regarded as a good person. In return, oneexpects others to be fair and reasonable to him.
When someone is facing problems or suffering, the naturalreaction from others is sympathy. People who demonstrate kindness may not be associated with the person or group that is distressed. The needy people might even be strangers. It is an inborn passion to share other people’s griefs, though there may be some characters that are sadists. Humans are innately decent, and every person is capable of being and doing good. This explains why it is common for people to provide gifts and other favours to those in need such as the sick, wounded, abandoned, beggars, and refugees.
On the other hand, society sometimes displays contradictions that make it hard, even impossible, for people to meet and keep the desired social ideals. Society may often appear to promote inhumane and immoral actions or defend the perpetrators. Why does society, which advocates and esteems good behaviour,seem to praise wrongdoers sometimes?
According to the great philosopher, Socrates, every person is born with a desire to be good, just and moral. Everyone wants and works for a good name. Wrongdoing is not a natural element; it is involuntary. Society can praise misconduct when they are mistaken about what is good. They can take actions and decisions based on wrong facts. Socrates believed that, in normal circumstances, people can be educated to choose what is good.
There is another question. Can people do wrong as a choice? The answer is ‘YES’. There are moments and events when people choose to be wicked and may knowingly violate social etiquette. One reason is a mental condition described as ‘sadism’ that causes a person to derive pleasure from the pain of others. Such a person will intentionally find ways to hurt somebody or a community through spiteful behaviours and actions and celebrate the resultant agony.
Low self-teem can also lead to intentional misconduct because the culprit would feel overwhelmed by personal flaws. Such aperson views himself as unlovable, weak or incapable of getting honour. He perceives that he can uplift himself by ruining the wellbeing of others. He inflicts harm on other people as he struggles to overcome his negative self-view. The more peoplewith low self-esteem are in a particular community, the higher the scale of transgressions.
It sometimes occurs that someone gets a good name by deception as society may not understand his true character. He can hide his identity, but his actions will eventually betray his personality. The scripture says, “You will know them by their fruits,” (Matthew 7:16).
By Venansio Ahabwe
Author, Teacher, Social Scientist.