Scientology is itself the microcosm of a civilization. It contains two moral codes: one is the moral code of practice which is the Auditor’s Code of 1954, the other is the Code of a Scientologist, which will be given at greater length in the next PAB. It also contains an ethical code, and that is its Code of Honour.
The difference between ethics and morals is very clearly known in Scientology, if not in a modem dictionary. This mergence of morals and ethics has occurred in recent times, and is symptomatic of a general decline. An ethic is practiced on an entirely self-determined basis. An ethical code is not enforceable, is not to be enforced, but is a luxury of conduct. A person conducts himself according to an ethical code because he wants to or because he feels he is proud enough or decent enough, or civilized enough to so conduct himself. An ethical code, of course, is a code of certain restrictions indulged in to better the manner of conduct of life. If one Scientologist started to punish or berate some other Scientologist and called for an enforcement on the grounds that the Code of Honour had been disregarded, the punitive act itself would involve and violate the Code of Honour. The Code of Honour is a Code of Honour as long as it is not enforced. If a person is big enough, or strong enough or sane enough, then he can indulge himself in the luxury of holding upon himself freely and of his own decision the Code of Honour. When such an ethical code begins to be enforced it becomes then a moral code.
A moral code is enforceable. Mores are those things which make a society possible. They are the heavily agreed-upon, policed codes of conduct of the society. If an auditor were to flagrantly and continually violate the Auditor’s Code or the Code of a Scientologist, then other auditors would have a perfect right to demand, and through the HASI effect, the suspension or revocation of certificates or memberships, or both. However, no such action is possible with the Code of Honour. A person could continually and flagrantly flaunt the Code of Honour and experience no more than perhaps the slight contempt or pity of his fellows.
The Code of Honour clearly states conditions of acceptable comradeship amongst those fighting on one side against something which they conceive should be remedied. While anyone practicing “the only one” believes that it is possible to have a fight or contest only so long as one remains “the only one” and confronts as that single identity all of existence, it is not very workable to live without friends or comrades in arms. Amongst those friends and comrades in arms one’s acceptability and measure is established fairly well by his adherence to such a thing as the Code of Honour. Anyone practicing the Code of Honour would maintain a good opinion of his fellows, a much more important thing than having one’s fellows maintain a good opinion of one.
If you believed Man was worthy enough to be granted by you sufficient stature so as to permit you to exercise gladly the Code of Honour, I can guarantee that you would be a happy person. And if you found an occasional miscreant falling away from the best standards you have developed, you yet did not turn away from the rest of Man, and if you discovered yourself betrayed by those you were seeking to defend and yet did not then experience a complete reversal of opinion about all your fellow men, there would be no dwindling spiral for you.
Indicative of this is a process which is rather easy to work and which has some workability. Sit down in a public place where many people are passing by and simply postulate into them, above them, around them, Perfection — no matter what you see. Do this person after person as they walk by you or around you, doing it quietly and to yourself. It may or may not occur that you would bring changes in their lives, but it would certainly occur that you would bring about a change in yourself. This is not an advised process — it is simply a demonstration of a fact that he who lives believing wrong of all his fellow men lives, himself, in Hell. The only difference between Paradise on earth and Hell on earth is whether or not you believe your fellow man worthy of receiving from you the friendship and devotion called for in this Code of Honour.