Do we talk 'principles', but act only as per our interest?

"You have no choice about the necessity to integrate your observations, your experiences, your knowledge into abstract ideas, i.e., into principles. Your only choice is whether these principles are true or false, whether they represent your conscious convictions-or a grab-bag of notions snatched at random, whose sources, validity, context, and consequences you do not know. . . ." - Ayn Rand( "Philosophy, Who Needs It," p. 6). How important is integrity of thoughts for you really? Do you actually follow all the principle and rules that are there to follow if no one is watching?

I remember going in a taxi to Geneva Airport from my hotel at 5 am to catch my flight, it was pitch dark outside and there was not a soul on the road at that time. The cab driver stopped at the red signal and was waiting for the signal to turn green to proceed further. I observed that there was not on car at the signal and if in India we would have just ignore the red signal because no one was watching and would have jumped the signal because we are bred in such an atmosphere that if there is no one at the signal and not even a policeman in sight we could just jump the signals. I asked the driver "why can't we just jump the signal and go? I am getting late for the flight!!" He watched my anxiety from his rear view mirror and smiled " No, Sir, even if there is no one on the road, I will never jump a signal, it is just a matter of few minutes but my integrity can't be doubted in any case".

This is a clear cut case of following one's principles and act accordingly. In life we get many such examples to quote when our integrity is tested from time to time and it is your character which shows which way you would behave as per your principles or you would act the other way and not walk the talk? Each of us is, as it were, the architect of his own life and happiness. So we each need principles that provide us with fundamental guidance in living. As Ayn Rand wrote, "[morality] is a code of values to guide man's choices and actions-the choices and actions that determine the purpose and course of his life."

A person of moral integrity acts on his grasp, by means of principles, of the causes of long-term well-being and happiness, and thereby sees beyond the incentives of the current moment to the full context that is at stake. Consider someone whose deliberations are always guided by this principle: “I shall never do anything unless doing so is best for me”. Such an individual is refusing ever to sacrifice his well-being even to the slightest degree. But in view of the terminological points just made, he could have altruistic motives for some of what he does—or even for much or all that he does! 

Some true principles that apply to scientific subjects are called laws, as for instance the law of gravity. In the moral realm, however, principles are often misidentified with the commandments. "Don't drink and drive" is a rule. By contrast, "the more alcohol one ingests, the more impaired one's judgement and reactions" is a principle. When we act on a principle, we do so because we grasp the facts of the situation, not because we ignore the facts and follow a rule. When we act on principle of honesty, by contrast, is the recognition that evading the truth is not an effective means of gaining those values from others, and that one benefits from grasping the truth and being open to facts.

In life's situations many times we fall victims of our own principles and act in other direction altogether because the situation demanded us to do so. When you read the instruction inside an elevator "Not more than 4 persons in the elevator at a time" we take advantage of the light weight of the fifth occupant may be a child or a small framed person who might not affect the weight in the lift at all, but if you are the man of a principle you would opt out and let the small kid or an extra person go in the elevator, on the contrary due to the urgency of going up for a meeting you would not mind compromise the safety of other 3 people while going with extra load of people in the elevator. After all nothing happened at all to any of us was the conclusion to your reaching the floor safely however if there was an accident due to overloading of the elevator whom would you blame? Yourself? or just escape by the staircase because no one was watching. Think about it! Stay blessed! #kishoreshintre