Yes, your personal honor is sullied if you serve a dishonored master. Because the universe sucks that way. Sometimes it's your duty to serve that master anyway, as well as you can. But it doesn't change that your personal honor is affected.
In the US military, officers are supposed to disobey an unlawful order. But how do they recognize that it's unlawful? It's always in retrospect. A court, a jury, points the finger and says 'shame on you, you should have known.' And this is true whether or not the people supported the actions when they were undertaken. It sucks. But every US officer takes professional military education that teaches them that this is how they serve the American people, that this is the risk they undertake willingly.
I think in the grand scheme of things, if you serve a bad king, your personal honor is affected. But you have no choice. It's just the universe mucking with you.
Ah, and The Iron Ring by Lloyd Alexander might also have something to say on this. Miss E read it earlier this year. A king believes himself bound to serve a master, whether it sullies his honor or not. The book uses a lot of the caste traditions from India (and all its various cultures). The king, as part of his service at one point in the story, is sentenced to serve as slave to an untouchable and toil as one of the burners of the dead. And he firmly believes his personal honor has been destroyed simply because he now serves the lowest of the low, the dishonored. His honor is restored at the end when it's revealed that all of this was a test and that no one else honored the bond he believed himself to be under.
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mmmag
no subject
Date: 2011-02-08 02:17 pm (UTC)In the US military, officers are supposed to disobey an unlawful order. But how do they recognize that it's unlawful? It's always in retrospect. A court, a jury, points the finger and says 'shame on you, you should have known.' And this is true whether or not the people supported the actions when they were undertaken. It sucks. But every US officer takes professional military education that teaches them that this is how they serve the American people, that this is the risk they undertake willingly.
I think in the grand scheme of things, if you serve a bad king, your personal honor is affected. But you have no choice. It's just the universe mucking with you.
Ah, and The Iron Ring by Lloyd Alexander might also have something to say on this. Miss E read it earlier this year. A king believes himself bound to serve a master, whether it sullies his honor or not. The book uses a lot of the caste traditions from India (and all its various cultures). The king, as part of his service at one point in the story, is sentenced to serve as slave to an untouchable and toil as one of the burners of the dead. And he firmly believes his personal honor has been destroyed simply because he now serves the lowest of the low, the dishonored. His honor is restored at the end when it's revealed that all of this was a test and that no one else honored the bond he believed himself to be under.
Oz