Following the resignation of Astronomer CEO Andy Byron after he was caught on a Jumbotron at a Coldplay concert in Boston cuddling with Human Resources chief Kristin Cabot (who is not his wife), the company issued the following statement: "Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently that standard was not met."
That got me thinking. There are standards? Haven't we been living at least since the 1960s with an "if it feels good, do it" philosophy which promotes the notion that if standards exist they are personal and subjective, not universal and objective?
A related word that used to describe the behavior of Byron and Cabot is "scandal," which some media outlets used in reporting the incident.
Here are some definitions of those two words to help focus the mind. Standards: "an accepted or approved example of something against which others are judged or measured." Fine, but what are those standards and who gets to set them?
Scandal: "A disgraceful or discreditable action ... an offense caused by a fault or misdeed; damage to reputation, public disgrace." Again, according to whom?
I recall the late Catholic Bishop Fulton J. Sheen asking a profound question at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington in 1979. It appeared to him and to many others that standards - moral, marital, sexual, financial, legal, political- were falling everywhere. Bishop Sheen asked a question: "How do you define a football field?" Answering his own question, he said: "By its boundaries."
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His point was that if there are no boundaries, you can't have a sports contest and without them in the rest of life, moral and political chaos results. We have had time between then and now to consider the wisdom of his words and conclude he was right. If individuals get to decide what the boundaries are - or conclude there are none - the consequences can be catastrophic from broken relationships, STDs, abortion, drug abuse, incivility and so much more.
Some quotes from the past can instruct contemporary thought and behavior. Theodore Roosevelt said: "To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society." Again, whose morals are we talking about in an age when anything goes?
The results of having high standards were proclaimed by former Florida Republican Governor Jeb Bush, whose school reforms raised a lot of boats: "We had rising student achievement across the board because high standards, robust accountability, ending social promotion in third grade, real school choice across the board, challenging the teachers union and beating them is the way to go."
Yes, but high standards must be taught, even imposed. Children, especially, don't "catch" them as they might catch a cold.
C.S. Lewis had one of the best comments on the consequences of eliminating standards and moral boundaries: "We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst."
The critical response by the Astronomer company to the Byron-Cabot incident is partially an acknowledgment that standards still exist. If people would only return to them, to quote from the late trumpeter Louis Armstrong in a different context," What a wonderful world this would be."
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