Integrity or Failure

          Integrity. It is a word which, in modern connotation, seems to be associated mainly with banks and savings firms. Although they know that it bears a decidedly positive air, most people would be at a loss if asked to explain integrity.  Some might posit such definitions as “honest”, “good” or “law-abiding”. The truest and purest definition however, is something more. The word “Integrity” comes from the Latin “Integer” meaning whole, or complete. It is from this definition whence arises the true meaning of the word Integrity.
     To have integrity, to be integral, is to embrace, in it’s completeness a single and all encompassing Weltanschauung. That is, a complete and comprehensive world-view. To truly be an integral anything, one must have a unified world-view. In the realm of ideologies, there can be no half-way. Either one has integrity in one’s ideas, or one has nothing. Think of modern ideologies, such as “Conservatism”. Look how is it constantly fractured and divided against itself.  That is because it does not have a unified Weltanschauung. Whenever an ideology allows for points of contention within itself, it is doomed to failure.
     Look at the most successful and powerful movements in history, the movements that inspired the most devotion and willingness to sacrifice everything. Look at the Apostles and the Early Christian Church, On the other end of the spectrum of Good and Evil, look at the radical Bolsheviks of Russia, or the Schutzstaffel of the Third Reich. In the latter two cases, their Weltanschauung was exceedingly evil, but nevertheless, it had a sort of integrity about it.
What I mean to say by this is that their world-view was sufficient unto itself. It offered a unified view on all aspects of human experience. When one embraced the Nazi party, one did not need to look farther, since an answer for all questions was contained in the ideology. The same is true of the communist ideology of the Bolsheviks. Their ideology incorporated all the ideas and opinions that a party member might ever need to have. In this way, the unity of the political or social body is safeguarded. By supplying for every ideological need, the splits which so commonly plague less integral groups are often precluded.   Back to the other end of the Spectrum, we find the Early Church, which,  under the unified and singular  Weltanschauung on the Councils and the Magisterium, spread over all of the known world.
     This is why integrity is so essential to any successful endeavor. When one does not have a belief which embraces all aspects of life, one can easily fall prey to the verbal tricks and mental machinations of one’s opponents. They will manipulate the gaps in our belief system. If they are allowed to carry this process to fruition, they will bring the whole edifice crashing down around us. It is then, surrounded by the smoking wreckage of our half-maturated religious musings, and internet-assembled philosophies, that we shall see where we went wrong. Without an integral Weltanschauung, this will always be our final end.