Face-saving – Sunday, August 26, 1945
Very much in our minds these days is the question of “face-saving.” The commission of an act that is in any degree wrong or unworthy, almost always seems to set in motion a process of self-justification. Often, even before we are called upon to explain our errors to others, we have already explained them to ourselves—and the excuses humankind can think of are a tribute to man’s inventive genius, even if not always to his regard for truth. There is no small deception, no theft, there is no kind of lying or cheating or misdoing but for which, if a man goes back far enough, and misuses the facts adroitly enough, he can find the means of self-justification.
If he takes something from his employer that doesn’t belong to him, he may offer, first to himself and then to others, the explanation that he has given more service than he was paid for anyway, and that what he has taken was therefore rightfully his. If he takes something from a neighbor that doesn’t belong to him, he may offer the explanation that he needs it worse than his neighbor, and, in the ultimate justice of things, he should have had it any way—which is a kind of thinking that marks the beginning of the road to ruin. Or he may immediately begin to tell himself how much worse are the things which other men do, and since the things he does are not as bad as what others do, by some miscarriage of logic, by some distortion of fact, he finds himself justified in committing a lesser act because someone else has committed a greater one.
In childhood, we confront Freddie with some misdeed, and he immediately begins to tell us how much worse was the thing his playmate did, which in some unexplainable way is supposed to exonerate Freddie. Reformation for the wrongdoer is virtually impossible to bring about until he concedes to himself his own error. Nations defeated at war, without having a sense of guilt, no matter how badly beaten, have historically proved to be but waiting for another chance to change the score. And if the leaders of a people have been permitted to teach them that they are right even when they are wrong, until you can teach them better you cannot change the potential situation, except by force; and force, with men and with nations, is a costly, troublesome, never-ending job. Errors are one thing, but justifying them is quite another.
If you can bring a man to admit the error of his ways, there is some chance of saving him, but if he will never drop his “face-saving,” will never humble himself, will always offer excuses, will always indulge in self-justification, he but digs himself deeper and deeper into his false position. “Face-saving” has nothing to do with honor. “Face-saving” concerns but the appearance of things, while honor has to do with the very moral structure. And ofttimes when a man is solely concerned with “saving face,” he both loses his honor and jeopardizes his soul’s salvation.
“The Spoken Word,” beard over Radio Station K S L and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, Aug. 26, 1945. Copyright 1945.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
August 26, 1945
Broadcast Number 0,836