I believe that the ability to look honestly at your own failings gives you the opportunity to learn from them, and makes you stronger, both individually, and as

I believe that the ability to look honestly at your own failings gives you the opportunity to learn from them, and makes you stronger, both individually, and as a community and nation. It's almost impossible for someone who is 'strong' in the sense used in this article, no matter how unique and noble of character, to maintain that honesty and dedication to continuously improve. Ultimately it becomes difficult for them even to know what the truth is, as people around them become more and more unprepared to share it with them, and the whole structure stultifies. Putting all the faults and failings and divisions and bickering out in the open may seem weak, but it can lead to a kind of dynamic strength and robustness that is not available to the authoritarian.