By Pr Isaiah White
Discipline is largely a discussed topic in many sociological fields. It is discussed because of its significance in life.
Discipline is an essential part of our life and living. In fact, without it we cannot work because it forms a pattern for how things work.
Many people, when told of the term ‘discipline’ they quickly imagine morality, but discipline goes way beyond morality.
While morality is about being right or wrong, discipline is a structured pattern of being and doing right while avoiding what is wrong.
Realities of discipline
In our world today, discipline can be exhibited in two different areas.
The first area is through our observation of how nature works.
Nature is consistent, it follows explainable patterns and operates within quantifiable periods for specific results. This is what discipline is about, it is not a surprise attack or a random way of living.
Discipline is about being predictable and having public reliability in both who you are and in what you do.
The other area is the military institution.
In simple terms, a military without discipline is deadly. If military people are not disciplined, they are likely to kill each other. For Instance, there were many “barbaric” tribes in the East during the time of the Roman Empire.
Though there were more of these folks than the Roman legions, Rome continued to expand. There were large fortifications that stood in the way of Rome, yet still they expanded. This is because Roman soldiers were the most disciplined soldiers since the Greek Spartans.
Roman soldiers were often taught each to fight up to six men at once. They were taught to be brave in the face of fear. They were trained to handle the battle. They were trained to move together with their formation, as one.
They thought as one. Acted as one. People are naturally different. We are unique beings. We have free will. Inherently, human beings don’t work together well straight out of the womb. But with discipline, we can train ourselves to act as one. Such as a community, a town, a city, a country and eventually live as one world. As you can see, discipline doesn’t just apply to the military, it applies to everyone in various aspects of life and in different ways.
There can be none of the modern marvels you see around you without discipline. Skyscrapers, phones, satellites, cities, airplanes, roads, electricity, and many more. Discipline enables human beings to do marvelous things.
In the military today, one must be disciplined enough to hold fire until they are commanded to shoot. There is need to know what to do in every situation, in order to not to get killed, or kill someone innocent.
Personal discipline
Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote: “Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.” You are not disciplined if you have not mastered the art of saying no to yourself.
Until you establish a pattern of being faithful under no external supervision, you are not disciplined.
