An emphasis on excellence presupposes a particular sense of justice in which merit excellence is encouraged, defended, and rewarded within the respective spheres of government and the marketplace. Justice, moreover, involves a sense of caring. To be just we must care about ourselves and our reputations, those we feel akin to and responsible for, the world. Built into any such system is the demand that we not take into account factors irrelevant to the task or beyond the individual s control. Excellence is measured by its purpose.
Excellence is both cooperation and competition contributing to the larger whole.
Excellence is a function of mutual inspiration and support in pursuit of a shared purpose. Its opposite, mediocrity, is a function of the mutual insecurity and enforced conformity that results where shared purpose is replaced by instinctive survival. The marketplace is an efficient arrangement for the satisfaction of economic interests. The realization of values, however, depends upon community-wide dialogue about the symbols, ideals, principles, and ideas of its culture. In short, economics and politics not founded on the Ethics of the community are without purpose and meaning.