Category: Hypocrisy
-
Hypocrisy: Two Observations
Substack latest
-
On the Death of a Neighbor
My neighbor Ted across the street, 85 years old, died the other day. Last I spoke with him, two weeks ago, he seemed as hale and hearty as ever. Ted and I enjoyed 26 trouble-free years of neighborly, if superficial, acquaintanceship. In this world of surfaces, relationships kept conventional and superficial are often best. Not…
-
Hypocrisy? Double-Standardization?
Accusing a leftist of being a hypocrite is like accusing a meat-eating Texas cattle rancher of being a carnivore. The concerns of bourgeois morality find as little purchase with leftists as the concerns of vegetarians with meat-eaters. A curious 'disconnect' is therefore displayed by earnest Fox commentators who upbraid leftists for their hypocrisy and double…
-
So True, Hillary!
-
A Double Standard or an Alinskyite Tactic?
One mistake I have corrected in my own political thinking — thanks in part to Malcolm Pollack and 'Jacques' — is the tendency to confuse the double standard with a hard-Left Alinskyite tactic the name of which, if it has one, I don't know. Suppose you and I are politically opposed but agree on certain…
-
‘Liberal’ Immigration Hyper-Hypocrisy
You may remember Trump Labor Secretary nominee Anthony Puzder who came under fire for having employed an illegal immigrant as a housekeeper. But why should 'liberals' care given that they do not distinguish legal from illegal immigrants while standing for open borders and sanctuary jurisdictions in defiance of the rule of law? Suddenly, these destructive…
-
Do Our Ideals Make Hypocrites of Us?
Perhaps only unrealizable ideals do. But such 'ideals' are not ideals in the first place. Only that which is realizable by us counts as an ideal for us. Or so say I. This is a quick and dirty formulation of my Generalized Ought-Implies-Can principle. Take celibacy. Can any healthy man in the full flood of…
-
Moral Phenomena in the Vicinity of Hypocrisy
When is one a hypocrite? Let's consider some cases. C1. A man sincerely advocates a high standard of moral behavior, and in the main he practices what he preaches. But on occasion he succumbs to temptation, repents, and resolves to do better next time. Is such a person a hypocrite? Clearly not. If he were,…
-
The Higher Hypocrisy
A man is only a man. If he tries to live like an angel, he may end up a hypocrite attempting the impossible. A man ought to live up to his highest possibilities. But what they are and where they lie is unknown until he seeks them out, risking hypocrisy as he does so. There…
-
For the Left, the Issue is Never the Issue
David Horowitz (2013): Here is another statement from [Saul Alinsky's] Rules for Radicals: “We are always moral and our enemies always immoral.” The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the immorality of the opposition, of conservatives and Republicans. If they are perceived as immoral and indecent, their policies and arguments can be dismissed,…
-
Virtue and its Exhortation
Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959, tr. Ryan Bloom, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2010, p. 72: Virtue is not hateful. But speeches on virtue are. Without a doubt, no mouth in the world, much less mine, can utter them. Likewise, every time somebody interjects to speak of my honesty . . . there is someone who quivers…
-
“No Man is a Hypocrite in His Pleasures”
Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959, tr. Ryan Bloom, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2010, p. 95: Johnson: "No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures." The Johnson in question is Samuel Johnson. Translator Bloom informs us that James Boswell's Vie de Samuel Johnson (Life of Samuel Johnson) was published in France in 1954. So it looks as…
-
Moral Phenomena in the Vicinity of Hypocrisy
When is one a hypocrite? Let's consider some cases. C1. A man sincerely advocates a high standard of moral behavior, and in the main he practices what he preaches. But on occasion he succumbs to temptation, repents, and resolves to do better next time. Is such a person a hypocrite? Clearly not. If he were,…
-
Flannery O’Connor on Pious Language
Flannery O'Connor, The Habit of Being (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1979), p. 227 in a letter to Maryat Lee dated 28 June 1957: I doubtless hate pious language worse than you because I believe the realities it hides. To the unbeliever, pious language is just so much cant and hypocrisy and offensive for these reasons. …
-
A Note on a Common Misunderstanding of Hypocrisy
I once heard a radio advertisement by a group promoting a "drug-free America." A male voice announces that he is a hypocrite because he demands that his children not do what he once did, namely, use illegal drugs. The idea behind the ad is that it is sometimes good to be a hypocrite. Surely this…