The Importance of Integrity

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Individual integrity is often skimmed over when it comes to the metacognition we should use from day to day. Metacognition is referred to as, thinking about thinking, or knowing about knowing which in turn helps us learn. A majority of society holds a belief, tradition, even a fear; as it may be so, of one of the most important parts of evolution—change. When thinking about who we are, why we are here, and what we can do about becoming better, learning to question right and wrong is an aspect of metacognition. Integrity is defined as adherence to moral and ethical principles, as well as the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished. It is important to use metacognition to evaluate ourselves, society, and the morality of a culture, all within the realms of integrity. Martin Luther King Jr. was a fastidious, exemplar in upholding integrity throughout his lifetime. His use of carefully articulated points in the Letter from Birmingham Jail took the clergymen’s distorted, learned, and unconstitutional behavior of segregation and flipped it upside-down, undoubtedly, to their disbelief. According to Stephen L. Carter’s The Rules about the Rules, the fulfillment of integrity “requires three steps: (1) discerning what is right and what is wrong; (2) acting on what you have discerned, even at personal cost, and (3) saying openly that you are acting on your understanding of right from wrong” (182). Carter, a lawyer, recognized that, “too many of us nowadays neither mean what we say nor say what we mean” (180). The Fixx’s song, “One Thing Leads to Another” recognizes this same issue. Carter delves deeper stating that, “A person who lives an integral life may sometimes reach moral conclusions that differ from those of... ... middle of paper ... ..., when an older actor dressed as a bum does the same thing, he is not even looked at twice by passerbys. The only person with enough integrity to stop was a disabled black woman who could not even phone for an ambulance, considering she had no phone. To bring such issues and controversies to light, Oprah is raising awareness of integrity just as King had. Implementing integrity with metacognition is a great tool to creating a better world for ourselves and our successors. Works Cited Carter, L. Stephen, “The Rules about the Rules.” The Presence of Others. 5th ed. Ed. Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz. Boston: Bedford /St. Martin's, 2008. 178-188. King, Luther Martin, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” The Presence of Others. 5th ed. Ed. Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz. Boston: Bedford /St. Martin's, 2008. 163-176.

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