Originally posted by TiG
I'll start with Honour, its definitely not required for modern day society.
That is a very sore subject...
What is honor? It is ill defined and not often observed, but in rare occasion people would notice a 'honorable thing' being done. It is difficult to see the relevance of honor in typical Westernized society because Western cultures tend to be highly verbal and literal - ie. all things are defined and all things defined have rules and regulations attached to it. But there is such thing as the 'unspoken rule' and I belief that the 'unspoken rule' and 'honor' are heavily inter-related.
I, being Chinese and have spent time living in Hong Kong,
think I know how important honor is a person's own conscience. In east Asian societies, honor is very much alive and kicking. 'Doing the honorable thing' means maintaining one's good name, saving others' 'face' or giving them 'face'. It is a very difficult concept to explain... There is a saying about 'honor amongst thieves' - there're certain things you do and certains things you don't - it is highly subjective to the culture or society that it exists in and evolved from... The reason why honor is so important in east Asian cultures is that these cultures are less verbal/literal, but more contextual and non-verbal. In a typical conversation, what is important is not what is spoken, but how it is delivered and what is not spoken. It is very subtle. That's where the 'unspoken rule' come in.