For practical evil-doers, there’s little difference between stupidity and being principled. For the others, there’s a thin line between being practical and being principled. For me, I think that while being practical is important, one should uphold principles as long as it doesn’t turns out to be stupidity. In other words, there’s a gulf between being principled and being stupid.
An example
You might be late for an unimportant appointment so you’d think ‘It’s okay, the appointment is not important’. But being principled, while the appointment is not important, being punctual and keeping your word is important.
So do a principles test. Are you willing to compromise your principles because you think it’s stupid to stick to it?
