uring a sequence of scenes in Orson Wells? unfinished ?Don Quixote? the two misguided protagonists come upon some ?new? inventions, including automobiles, a radio, a television, missiles, telescopes, airplanes and motion picture cameras.

At one point they stop to look at some these ?miracles? in a shop window and Sancho Panza expresses wonder and delight that all these mod cons can exist in such a marvellous world.

Quixote responds: ?None of this matters Sancho, even if we don?t understand it. It?s only chivalry that matters.? He then rides on to his foolish mission in dignity, constantly befuddled by the demands of the modern world.

I have often thought about ?chivalry? since seeing a version of the surviving sequences of Well?s ?Quixote? earlier this year. While Quixote?s monomania about chivalry leads him from disaster to disaster, he remains in some way noble and admirable in this updated version of the classic tale.

It would be wise to consider these words inserted by Wells into the tale while you?re using all those high-tech luxury toys you?ve received for Christmas. Now, more than ever, we need to revive the concept of chivalry and instill it in ourselves and in our children.

Many among us are cynical for all the wrong reasons, ignorant about the plight of the rest of the world because we?ve been deceived by all the fluff and superficiality of our lifestyles and monomaniacal about hacking out our own solitary paradise at home, surrounded by our machines.

Pretty heavy stuff huh? I could explain what I mean by all of this more fully, but you?ve heard it all before, right? Then turned away, enthralled by that new digital camera, that sleek new computer, that wonderful DVD player.

Cynicism is rife these days, with all the corporate scandals and greed, the Machiavellian politics we have become inured to, the hardnosed treatment of each other on the streets or the football field.

These days the mob behaviour we see around us helps us to excuse our non-chivalrous ways. If everyone else is behaving badly, why not us? There is a different way, a simpler way.

Chivalry is a code of behaviour based on courtesy and honour. The code encapsulated the noble qualities a knight was supposed to have, such as courage and a readiness to help the weak, according to Scott Farrell?s site on the subject (www.chivalrytoday.com.

?Today, we?re not too different from those knights in the Middle Ages ? we have a great deal of wealth and resources and freedom at our disposal, and we can use (or misuse) them in nearly any way we like,? he writes. ?Perhaps that?s why people are finding the concept of chivalry so relevant to modern life. Perhaps, like those knights in shining armour hundreds of years ago, we want to experience the satisfaction of knowing that we have championed the right causes and embraced the right principles, not because we were told to do so, but simply because we have chosen to follow that path. In short, that?s what chivalry is ? a choice. The choice to do the right things, for the right reasons, at the right times.? makes a similar but familiar call in a recent editorial: ?Christmas is the season of giving, and this year, more than ever, all members of the Bermuda community need to consider how they can give to make the community stronger and fairer.?

I would have added that the time for consideration is long past. It is time to act. It is all about taking responsibility as an individual for your actions and for those around you.

Chivalry is not a remote concept. It?s above all about action.

?It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious (people) is a corporation with a conscience,? says Henry David Thoreau, whose mission was to emphasise the individual above the mob.

It?s tough to be a knight these days. Most everyone will say we are tilting at windmills. But let us embark, you and I, on a mission to revive chivalry in 2005. Let?s start with simple politeness and work up from there ? not because we are told to do so, but because we chose to do so.

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