"Moral Honesty"

You know, it's kind of funny that I'm going to be teaching about Peer Pressure because, for a while, I toyed with the idea of writing some kind of satire about the evils of yielding to positive peer pressure. I was going to call it "Moral Honesty." The argument would have been that is is dishonest to be a better person around other people than you normally are. We should behave no differently around others than we behave when we're alone, so if someone tries to bring out our best, we should resist that urge and instead show them how we really are. To do otherwise would be dishonest, especially because we would then be on our best behavior specifically when at least one other person was around to see how good we were being. It is, according the the satirical argument I'll probably never write, better to be honest about our faults and misgivings than it is to try to overcome those faults when, and only when, others are around to see it.

Of course, that argument is completely wrong. We should let others influence us for good, even if that means behaving differently than normal. "Moral Honesty" isn't a thing. But goodness is goodness, whether others are around or not.