American Character - The American Trust Code

# The American Trust Code *Ten values that build a civilization worthy of freedom* ![[resources/american/americanforme-main-values.png]] **The Ten Values:** [[american/American Character - Value 01 - Integrity|1. Integrity]] · [[american/American Character - Value 02 - Competence|2. Competence]] · [[american/American Character - Value 03 - Discretion|3. Discretion]] · [[american/American Character - Value 04 - Responsibility|4. Responsibility]] · [[american/American Character - Value 05 - Truth|5. Truth]] · [[american/American Character - Value 06 - Service|6. Service]] · [[american/American Character - Value 07 - Respect|7. Respect]] · [[american/American Character - Value 08 - Justice|8. Justice]] · [[american/American Character - Value 09 - Courage|9. Courage]] · [[american/American Character - Value 10 - Stewardship|10. Stewardship]] **Related:** [[american/American Character - The Moral Code|The Moral Code]] · [[american/American Ethos - The Five Axioms|The Five Axioms]] · [[american/American Ethos - The Ten Cultural Theses|The Ten Cultural Theses]] · [[american/American Comportment - 01 - Presence and Bearing|American Comportment]] ## Values Are the Architecture of Trust American Character names the moral interior of the American standard. Comportment explains how a person behaves in visible situations; character explains what governs the person when visibility, advantage, and applause disappear. Integrity, competence, discretion, responsibility, truth, service, respect, justice, courage, and stewardship are not slogans. They are practices through which citizens, institutions, and the Republic learn whether reliance is safe. Trust accumulates through repeated evidence. A promise is kept, a fact is checked, a confidence is guarded, a consequence is anticipated, a difficult duty is accepted, and an inherited system is left in better condition. Each act is small enough to escape notice; together they determine whether a family, company, agency, laboratory, court, neighborhood, or nation can coordinate without spending all of its strength defending against betrayal. ## The Ten-Value Test - **Integrity:** do what is right when it is hard; keep the word and the honor attached to it. - **Competence:** master the craft because excellence is a duty owed to people who rely upon the work. - **Discretion:** guard what is entrusted; privacy is a form of respect. - **Responsibility:** own choices, anticipate consequences, and finish what was started. - **Truth:** seek reality, verify before speaking, and place facts above feelings. - **Service:** place mission, team, nation, and the common world above vanity. - **Respect:** treat every person with dignity and disagree without degrading. - **Justice:** uphold lawful fairness and the disciplined institutions that make it durable. - **Courage:** do the hard thing for what is right rather than the easy thing for what is popular. - **Stewardship:** protect what is not owned absolutely and leave it better for the next person. ## Character Made Visible American Character is not hidden virtue waiting to be admired. Integrity becomes a kept promise; competence becomes functioning work; discretion becomes a protected confidence; responsibility becomes an owned consequence; truth becomes a corrected record; service becomes capability offered; respect becomes dignity preserved; justice becomes fair process; courage becomes proportionate action; stewardship becomes inheritance maintained. Values count when they enter conduct. The American Trust Code therefore sits beneath American Comportment. Manners without character become manipulation, while character without legible behavior remains difficult for others to coordinate with. The finished citizen joins the two: inward principle and outward practice telling the same truth. ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > “If character is wanted, it can be created by hard work and kind deeds.” [[reminders/Civic Character/Character Made by Work and Kindness by Calvin Coolidge|∴]] > **— Calvin Coolidge**, *Simple Reminders on Real American Pride* > “We must impose our values on the software that we create, otherwise it may impose an emergent and unconstrained set of values on us.” [[reminders/National Defense/Values Imposed on Software by Alex Karp|∴]] > **— Alex Karp**, *Simple Reminders on Real American Pride* > “There must be mutual trust between the military project organization and the contractor.” [[reminders/National Defense/Mutual Trust Between Military and Industry by Clarence Kelly Johnson|∴]] > **— Clarence “Kelly” Johnson**, *Simple Reminders on Real American Pride* > “Good manners reflect something from the inside—an innate sense of consideration for others and respect for self.” [[reminders/Comportment/Good Manners from the Inside by Emily Post|∴]] > **— Emily Post**, *Simple Reminders on Real American Pride*  ## American Knowledge Router **System:** [[collections/American|American Collection]] · [[wiki/American System|American System]] · [[wiki/American Character|American Character]] · [[american/American Character - The American Trust Code|Branch source]] **Concepts:** [[wiki/American Trust Code|American Trust Code]] · [[wiki/American Character|American Character]] **Intelligence, defense, and alliance:** [[wiki/American Intelligence and Alliance Interface|American Intelligence and Alliance Interface]] · [[collections/The Civilian Intelligence Marketplace|The Civilian Intelligence Marketplace]] · [[collections/Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and the Intelligence Environment|Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and the Intelligence Environment]] · [[collections/US-Israel Leadership Alliance|US–Israel Leadership Alliance]]