Low Honor vs High Honor

There are no consequences of taking responsibility.

Only benefits.

They only look like consequences because your maturity has not caught up to your position yet.

— Ed Latimore (@EdLatimore) February 25, 2023

Ed Latimore is the quintessential internet guru, and rather than focus on him, which would require a whole series of posts, I'll focus on what he said.

Ed's tweet, like all social media guru's, has all style and no substance. At best it's a half truth. There is no practical application in the real world, but more importantly, it's dangerous because it's ignorant of the two cultures that permeate almost every facet of Western civilization:

Low Honor culture vs High Honor culture.

Low Honor behavior is difficult to define (these definitions are not set in stone), but off the top of my head I'd say Low Honor is a culture that promotes low honor behavior, such as sneakiness, tattle telling, chain jumping, whining, playing the victim, passive aggressiveness, holding grudges, and anything which avoids direct confrontation. You find low honor behavior in any organization with a lot of bureaucracy, such as corporate culture, non combat jobs in active duty military, and politics. 

High Honor behavior is the opposite of Low Honor behavior. A High Honor culture promotes direct confrontation. It promotes bravery, strength, dignity, mercy, hard work, suffering in silence and success. You find High Honor in sports (especially fighting sports), certain combat roles in the military, and certain jobs like fire fighters, law enforcement (not the administration part), EMT's. 

Low Honor (LH) and High Honor (HH) can be found side by side, often times in the same organization.  

In the military, your special forces will have a HH culture but the jobs that support them will have a LH culture. In law enforcement, maybe the cops actually doing the job will have a HH culture, but the administration and leadership will have a LH culture.

Your main sports (football, soccer, baseball, and basketball) and fighting sports (boxing, muay thai, jiu jitsu, and MMA), are all HH cultures.

What does this have to do with Latimore's tweet? 

When he says there are no consequences of taking responsibility, he's talking about a HH culture. 

Example: Let's say I lost a boxing match because my stamina was trash and I gassed out and ran out of energy in round three. If I take responsibility and say "I didn't train hard enough," that means I acknowledge the problem and recognize it was my fault. 

There are no negative consequences. All I need to do is train harder, and how hard I train is entirely dependent upon me. 

In LH culture, taking responsibility can, at worst, get you sued/fired/jailed, and at best, get you a slap on the wrist. 

Example: Let's say I'm active duty military I'm driving a GOV (government operated vehicle) and I accidently scraped the side of the van. The next day, the NCO (non commissioned officer) in charge of the GOV's asks who scrapped the side of the van. I can admit to doing it and at worst I'll get an article 15, court martialed, and kicked out, after paying for it out of my own pocket, or at best I'll get a verbal counseling (which is just a higher ranking person telling you not to do it again), or, if I don't take responsibility and never admit to it, then I won't get in any trouble because they can't prove it was me. 

The punishment one receives is entirely dependent on factors completely outside of your control. Your section supervisor might like you, but your shift supervisor doesn't or vice versa. The VNCO might like you but the shift supervisor doesn't or vice verse. You came in late two months before. Your leadership had a bad day, maybe his wife left him or his dog died. Someone wrecked a GOV three weeks ago (and only got a verbal counseling and the next person will get the worst punishment and be "made an example of" (and will get an article 15 even though the damage wasn't as severe as the first person).

So many factors, completely outside of your control, determine what type of consequence you'll receive, but if I don't take responsibility, and they can't prove it was me, then I won't get in any trouble at all. 

So Latimore's advice only works in HH culture, but in LH culture, it is stupid to accept responsibility. In fact, its is better to always avoid any and all responsibility.

This is the foundation of HH culture and LH culture. More on this later.