Promises mean nothing without a pen and paper anymore.
Gone are the days of genuine honesty and commitment, as we now habitually sign away, cheapening our own words with the written, unbreakable proof the we made a promise. The movement has even reached the halls of Neuqua Valley, where athletes must sign a pledge to stay out of trouble, maintain good grades, and not use steroids. While all of these signatures are a good way of reminding yourself of the commitment you are making, they can also be equally damaging by replacing trust with obligation.
In almost every business deal or transaction made, the pens come out to seal the deal and affirm payment or to assume liability. However, in the world we live in today, such precautions need to be made. Thanks to the globalization and the advances of technology, the world is a more causal place, where interaction is commonplace and relationships form over the realm of cyberspace. In these instances, it is far more difficult to truly get to know one another, and transactions no longer include a judge of character, but a flourish of a credit card. The anonymity of the internet has formed good reason for more binding contracts, more sordid promises, due to the fact that it is human nature to feel less obligated to a person you have never met or personally spoken to.
In other forms of our society, however, integrity is over-compensated for. And the sad thing is, we welcome these binding contracts. They give us structure, define our finanacial goals, and hold us to the moral standard of paying for the things that we enjoy. Contracts protect us from ourselves.
Contracts are not promises.
They can be extended or paid off. They are escapable. As our world trades in the handshake for a signature, the next generation must be wary. Neuqua students will be entering a business world where people will not be satisfied with a sound moral center or firm handshake. As the world becomes bigger, it seems that people have less time to get to know each other and settle for a signature instead of a friend when agreeing on to pay a large sum.
When entering the business world, Neuqua graduates should remember that the world is a large and small place, and that sometimes it pays to get to know the people who you make contracts with. Abandoning attempts to build a personal relationship for the sake of convienence is not the answer, and it will only result in piles of unfeeling paperwork that demand to be paid. The pen and paper may be the seal to a professional life, but the simple concepts of integrity and friendship should not be lost in the shuffle.
By Allison Mooney, Echo opinions editor
