Not so long ago, it used to be that when our actions and words no longer aligned with our public image, the lack of integrity put us at significant risk of being shamed, even ostracized, for our moral failure and hypocrisy. Politicians caught with their hands in the cooker jar resigned, employees who cut corners were fired, cheating students were expelled, and so on.

Today, standards are shifting rapidly as we increasingly find ourselves in what I describe as a "post-shame" world. In other words, anything goes in the race to stay ahead, and like doping in sports, for example, its prevalence spreads until it becomes the way things are. From college students to corporate executives to political party members, the pressures to fit in and compromise principles are immense, even if it means being thoroughly disingenuous, even corrupt, as the lines between right and wrong become increasingly blurred. 

"Your call is important to us; somebody will be with you shortly…" Recently, in need of help, as I was waiting on the 'phone to talk to a real person, I had a lot of time to think about declining integrity, which was unashamedly showing up between the message I was hearing and the truth of the situation. The word integrity has evolved from the Latin adjective "integer, "meaning whole, complete, undivided, and unbroken. Applied to people and the institutions we create; it refers to the idea of conducting ourselves and our affairs according to the values and principles we profess to have. Obviously, if my call mattered, someone would answer it.

The consequences of declining integrity are immense. Without integrity, nothing can sustain itself. I recently purchased a laptop from a well-known electronics chain store, and not only was I cynically misled as to its capability, I had to fight to get a full refund. So far gone was the situation that the employees on the sales floor didn't even attempt any pretense that they were there to help as they would have in the past. A business model that puts short-term profit over customer service can't survive as a store of discounted items, and few customers illustrate.

The integrity deficit is rising, not only in our corporations, businesses, politics, and religious institutions but also on a personal level, where we see how people increasingly leverage one another's trust. The ripple effects can be devasting. A single lie put an innocent, severely disabled friend of mine in a maximum-security prison for nine years without access to the medical care he desperately needed.

I believe there are many reasons for declining integrity. The most fundamental is the threat of others taking away what we need to survive. This fear and greed have always existed, but now there is no pretense about this either from institutions or individuals, leading to an increasing disregard for ethical behavior and principles, tipping the only planet we call home into the danger zone.

Even concepts of service, honor, and sacrifice, which most of us could agree upon, have been reduced by some to mocking losing and glorifying winning, as we witnessed with the political attacks on the late Senator John McCain. The web contributes by putting distance between us and many of the consequences of facing each other directly and being accountable for our actions.

In this atmosphere, it's all too easy to succumb to cynicism and apathy. Finding myself at the point where I'm amazed if somebody does what they say they'll do is not a feeling we should ever become accustomed to. It's a vicious circle that will only take us down if we allow it to.

We all face tough challenges around integrity. Who are we in private? How do we behave when the boss is out? Would we lie under oath to save our skin? If we found a stash of cash, would we hand it in? So, here's a reminder of the power of integrity to make life better for us and our world.

It's the ego that undermines integrity. Contrary to what that egoic voice in our heads proclaims, we are not the epicenter of the world. We are all connected, and every single thing we do impacts others either positively or negatively. Don't let your ego run the show. And this brings me back to my father during the war.

When the German POWs arrived to work on our farm, it was an unpopular move, and they were treated with great suspicion. My father had every reason to be resentful as he'd signed up for the army but was declined because his expertise was needed in the ongoing challenge of feeding Britain. Being a man of integrity, however, he chose to see these men as human and assess them not by nationality but by the content of their character. It turned out that many of these decent, hardworking men had been drafted into a war effort they didn't want and didn't believe in. Years later, after the war, when I was growing up, we would have visits from some of these men and their families who remained friends with us. In this small corner of England, integrity won the day for humanity and the greater good, and this is a story that has influenced me my entire life. Behaving with integrity is a choice we can make, and what a difference it does makes.