The Cowboy Code 540.4
I grew up in much simpler times. Television was in its infancy, and the idea of a hero was exemplified by a white-hatted cowboy. There was a clarity and simplicity to this hero’s moral code that left no doubt there was a right and a wrong.
As I became more sophisticated, it was easy to ridicule these simplistic approaches to ethics and living. Yet the more I learn, the more I’ve come to think there’s as much danger in muddying our choices into endless shades of gray.
Sure, there are extenuating factors and exceptions that challenge the validity of every ethical principle, but on balance we need clear prescriptive guidelines of virtue. Such standards are provided in the quaintly old-fashioned Cowboy Code promoted by the late Gene Autry:
1. Don’t shoot first, hit a smaller man, or take unfair advantage.
2. Don’t go back on your word or a trust confided in you.
3. Tell the truth.
4. Be gentle with children, the elderly, and animals.
5. Don’t advocate or possess racially or religiously intolerant ideas.
6. Help people in distress.
7. Be a good worker.
8. Keep yourself clean in thought, speech, action, and personal habits.
9. Respect women, your parents, and the law.
10. Be patriotic.
With a little updating, this code still works.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
Comments
Updating, like the Cowboy Code, always needs to be pruned into an enhanced form as "we" move through life. It is like a page of a book of the earth and the universe. Some, want to look at the past, the present, and then try to look around the corner to the future. Others, will look only to the past or to the present and not to the future! But, the future is there for anyone who wants to find out!
Posted by: Papa Foote | November 16, 2007 11:47 AM
Dear Sir;
I too grew up in the post war era, watched the cowboy movies, played cowbows and indians,jumped off the garage roof with a towel tied to my neck screaming "Superman," followed the safety rules at school and on the way home, said, "Hello," to even a stranger as they walk by my house, loved my dog, sisters, parents, nieghbors, washed my hands before a meal, said my prayers, "Good-night" to my friends and pledged fidelity to our flag and respected the policeman for helping me in distress.Today not much has changed for me. I wasn't cognizant that Gene Autry movies ment so much. Now I know where these values started and how they where followed by so many people around me. Surely other factors entered into my life but, as a teacher, I have seen the lose that so many young people today have never seen.
I commend the strong teachers that stand by their ethics and continue to build a beautiful America, your efforts to enforce it in your commentarties and those that believe in it too.
Edward
Posted by: Edward Grageda | November 16, 2007 12:36 PM
Hello Michael,
Regarding the cowboy code from Gene Autry you said with a little updating it would still stand.
I am curious just what needs updating there. I don't see a single thing.
Posted by: Bruce W. Shown | November 19, 2007 6:59 AM
Are the US and Europe leading the way in establishing homosexuality and abortion as desirable options? How beneficial are these for humans and humanity?
Posted by: Anonymous | November 20, 2007 3:23 PM
Though words from a different era, these basic truths withstand the test of time and hold true even today. How much better a nation we would be if as Americans we lived by the Cowboy Code on a daily basis.
Posted by: A loyal fan | November 21, 2007 8:27 AM
The Cowboy Code is not outdated and is much needed in today's society. I am a guidance counselor in a small school within a very large system. This is my 10th year as counselor and 22 years were spent in the classroom.
This code is what is taught using the pillars of character our district adopted.
It is rewarding to talk to 5th graders who have been with the program since Kg. and practice daily these same principles. They can apply problem solving techniques utilizing that very code. It doesn't get any better than that.
Posted by: Patty Montgomery | February 21, 2008 3:19 AM