Character Is Destiny: The Value of Personal Ethics in Everyday Life Hardcover - 1997

First line

Not your personality, but your character, is destiny.

Excerpt

Foreword by William Kilpatrick, author of Why Johnny Can't Tell Right from Wrong
T.S. Eliot once observed that some of his contemporaries were in the habit of "dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good." The dream of finding a substitute for character is still, of course, very much alive. After all, being good is hard work. How much better if, by some happy arrangement, society would discover the right technical or governmental solution to problems such as incivility, crime, drug abuse, and irresponsible sex. A number of these technical solutions have already been tried–clean needles, Norplant, safe-sex kits, gun exchange programs, and the like–but they never seem to improve our situation. And they never manage to relieve us of our responsibilities.
The dream of a society "so perfect that no one will need to be good" is really a child's dream. It betrays a hope that the "grownups" (society, the government) will take care of everything so the rest of us can just play. This is exactly the kind of attitude we might expect to arise in a culture where so many people are in search of their own inner child. And it helps to explain why, when hurt in the pursuit of play and pleasure, so many look for someone else–a corporation, a product manufacturer–to blame.
We need to stop dreaming. The truth is, there is no substitute for personal character and there never will be. By the same token, there is no way to educate young people for character in the absence of adults with character. Character development is not something the schools can do through the introduction of some new, technically perfect curriculum. Rather, the best way for a young person to learn good habits of behavior is by identifying with and imitating adults who already practice those habits. By making adult character education its primary focus, Character Is Destiny reminds us that the process of cultivating virtue and overcoming vice in one's personal character does not–should not–end simply because one has entered adulthood. Indeed, it reminds us that being of adult age is one thing, but actually being adult, in the sense of exemplifying moral maturity as a matter of regular practice, is quite another. And perhaps more tellingly, it reminds us that no matter who we are and no matter how ethically comfortable or self-satisfied we have become, all of us fall far short of perfection, and thus should steadfastly keep striving to become fully grown moral beings.
What does it mean, from a moral point of view, to be an adult? Charakter, the word Aristotle uses to describe moral maturity, means "enduring marks." There is something lasting about a person of character. He or she does not change with the seasons, is not, in Shakespeare's words, "a pipe for fortune's finger to sound what stop she please." To help us understand the term better, Professor Gough makes a useful distinction between character and personality (a word with which our society is far more comfortable). What's the difference between the two? Consider the following poem:
Out upon it! I have loved
Three whole days together;
And am like to love three more,
If it prove fair weather.
We can easily detect a personality here. The narrator of Sir John Sucklin's seventeenth-century poem seems to have plenty of that. He strikes us as bold, engaging, humorous–the sort we refer to as a lovable rogue. But it's hard to detect any enduring traits of character in this "constant lover." A charming personality, perhaps, but, in other respects, reliably unreliable.
There are countless books available to tell us how to develop more charming or persuasive personality, but few that tell us how we can acquire the more important traits of good character–the kind of traits that make it possible to be a "constant lover" in the true sense, or to be a constant and committed parent. But Character Is Destiny is more than a how-to book. Professor Gough provides us not only with commonsense practices, but also the commonsense philosophy that infuses practice with meaning. Moreover, he is aware of the self-defeating attitudes we often employ: "That's just the way I am," "I'm too set in my ways to change," or "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." Refreshingly, Character Is Destiny rejects such moral evasions, and replaces them with pragmatic guidelines for pursuing and cultivating virtue.
Equally refreshing, Character Is Destiny sticks to its subject. Now that politicians have discovered "character" and "virtue," the terms have become a bit suspect. The inevitable question that occurs is, "Is there some hidden agenda here?" Is this a book about political ideology? About being conservative or liberal? The answer to these questions is no. Rather, it's simply, though profoundly, about being a person of good character, a person of virtue. And people of good character and virtue, of course, can and do give allegiance to any number of political parties and persuasions. We all know people who, though we may agree with them on the issues of the day, are people we can never really trust. Conversely, we all know others who we trust implicitly even though we don't see eye-to-eye on politics. This book's sole allegiance is to the ethical character that allows all people, regardless of political persuasion, to live lives of integrity. And in so doing it is a book for everybody, precisely because it speaks to us on the most fundamental level–as free moral agents.
We owe Russell Gough a debt of gratitude for making clear what most "experts" in character education fail to realize: We become better people not by discussing ethics, but by practicing good behavior. In this profound yet simple book, Gough reminds us that the hard part of morality is not knowing what is right, but doing what is right. Is doing the right thing something we can learn in three easy steps? No, says Professor Gough, but the good news is that, with time and practice, acting with courage, fairness, and self-control becomes increasingly natural and effortless. This is an important contribution to the national debate about character. And, equally important, it's the kind of book that can make a real difference in the life of the reader.

Media reviews

"This profound book reminds us how utterly central character is to all else in life . . . I plan to stay in touch with this book for many years."
— Shelby Steele
"This book speaks directly to the moral crisis of our time. It is a book educators, parents, and just good people will not want to miss."
— Amatai Etzioni, author of The Spirit of Community
"Reading Character is Destiny is like listening to a trusted friend giving you heartfelt, character-building advice. Its wise, passionate, and down-to-earth message will not only show you how and why but will make you want to improve the ethical quality of your everyday life"
— Jack Canfield, coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Soul series
"For anyone concerned with the moral decline of the nation and looking for the prescription for cure, this is a good place to start."
— Yitta Halberstam, coauthor of Small Miracles
"Russ Gough has accomplished something very rare: A college philosopher has written a book in real English for real people on the most important subject of all—character. I congratulate him."
— Dennis Prager, radio talk-show host and author of Think a Second Time