Secret Society of Upright People

Imagine that you wanted to create an organization of people with truly amazing upright character. How would you go about finding the right people to join? A simple poll of whether or not someone is "upright" would be an utter failure and give you all the wrong people. Upright people would recognize their shortcomings and would likely avoid labeling themselves as upright while those labeling themselves as such are no doubt fooling themselves or others. A situational questionnaire would likely be just as fruitless as people can easily respond with what they ought to do yet fail to do so when given the opportunity. And yet failure itself is by no means a solid indicator of a lack of character. What one does with their failures is often more telling than the failure itself. It's better that a person have a nonvelleitous desire for uprightness and that they actively strive for it moreso than actually succeed 100% of the time.

So what could you do? Aside from the obvious conundrum surrounding the difficulty of defining what upright character truly is, how would you go about finding the people you want if you knew exactly what you were looking for? Let's say we spent hundreds of years determining the exact type of person to fit within a society of upright people; how would you find such people? It's hard to speculate without actually possessing such knowledge, but I believe one thing is pretty clear: you'd have to monitor people secretly without telling them what you are doing. If they know you're judging their character they will undoubtedly behave much different. They must not know. In fact, the knowledge that such a society even exists could sway a person to behave opposite their true person just for the sake of putting on a show for unknown potential observers. It would have to remain a secret entirely.

After establishing some form of secret monitoring system for all people, one could then attempt to determine who is in and who is out. But the crazy thing about character is that it's not a one-shot thing. You can't see a person save a kitten and immediately add them to your list of upright citizens. You'd ultimately have to follow that person all their life to see if he or she always comes back to uprightness as the main modus operandi. Over the course of many years through thick and thin, sickness and health, backsliding and abundance, does this person learn and come back to living uprightly? Clearly, after that much time of monitoring, such a society would have to be filled with people on their deathbeds! Not a very lively bunch. The only way this could work out is if there was a means of reviving a person back to good health after an adequate amount of proving his or her quality. The other way would simply be to have a much shorter monitoring period, be much less conclusive, and allow a lot of error.

It's fun to ponder though if there is a god, gods, or advanced beings who are actually doing this. Successful entrance into the society would be much akin to the concept of Heaven. I think we can leave out the idea of Hell since an upright person would find no satisfaction in the torment of another even if they were indeed evil; it simply serves no purpose. Such beings, however, would ultimately leave themselves unknown and unknowable. To make themselves known is to destroy the secrecy of the club and ruin the test of character altogether. They would simply have to observe silently. And if ever they did intervene, it would have to be in a rather unknown manner or with clear explanations outside the supernatural lest they ruin the test of character for the very people they're intervening for. In short, beings bent on the gathering of upright people would have to be entirely unknowable.

It's possible, too, that any beings desiring to maximize uprightness and good would be immediately directed toward the gathering of upright people. You might think that if they were simply seeking for others to become upright they might take on a more parental role and provide instruction and training. I can train my children and they may or may not choose to live uprightly. Since I'm not testing them in order to bring them into a secret society this works out just fine; they will ultimately reap what they sow in life and hopefully my training will stick to keep them upright. On the other hand, bad company corrupts good judgement and vice versa. A society of upright people could indeed be heaven. The amount of good and uprightness resonating from such a society could be the best thing worth creating and preserving. So beings bent on good and helping others do good may first and foremost be bent on preserving such an elite group of upright individuals. It then becomes a mere cost/benefit analysis when deciding to save people of this world from horrendous affairs versus preserving the secrecy of the society which possesses a greater benefit.

This could very well explain a god who seems to be missing a lot of opportunities to help a lot of people. It could explain a lot of the confusion as to why a good god wouldn't be more upfront with the people if such a one exists. I can't say that I believe such an upright society exists, but it is indeed an interesting thing to ponder. But if such a process is indeed taking place, I hope I am found acceptable :-).