The reality is that rulers never exiled themselves for failing to rule. Honor is an important virtue and I agree that it has not been recognized by many modern people, and those few who have lauded it have often been weird LARPing jingoistic weirdos who have spent too many hours playing CoD.
That said, honor has itself always been rare. Societies that wrote literature about knightly chivalry were often in fact doing so as a way to pressure Knights into actually behaving. Samurai bushido was often invoked specifically as a tool of the emperor to bend armed men to his needs, rather than because of any real belief in it.
That shouldn't be too much of a surprise but I think it's worth putting that forward. Honor is a great thing, but it's rare, always has been.
The reality is that rulers never exiled themselves for failing to rule. Honor is an important virtue and I agree that it has not been recognized by many modern people, and those few who have lauded it have often been weird LARPing jingoistic weirdos who have spent too many hours playing CoD.
That said, honor has itself always been rare. Societies that wrote literature about knightly chivalry were often in fact doing so as a way to pressure Knights into actually behaving. Samurai bushido was often invoked specifically as a tool of the emperor to bend armed men to his needs, rather than because of any real belief in it.
That shouldn't be too much of a surprise but I think it's worth putting that forward. Honor is a great thing, but it's rare, always has been.