Category: Virtues and Vices
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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…
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A Note on Civil Courage
This needs saying again. Originally posted 17 November 2015. ………………………………. Responding to a commenter who states that one exposes oneself to tremendous risk by speaking out against leftist insanity, Malcolm Pollack writes: Most bloggers who write from a contrarian position about these things seem to use noms de plume. In fact, I do have another blog…
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Plagiarism
How could you, Monica Crowley? Well, at least you are in good company. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. plagiarized portions of his Boston University dissertation: A committee of scholars appointed by Boston University concluded today [10 October 1991] that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. plagiarized passages in his dissertation for a doctoral degree at…
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A Righteous Form of Schadenfreude?
I posed the question in the aftermath of the election and because of the pleasure many of us are feeling at the Left's comeuppance: Is there a righteous form of Schadenfreude or is it in every one of its forms as morally objectionable as I make it out to be here? Edward Feser supplies an affirmative…
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The Clintons as Grifters
Victor Davis Hanson: The Hillary/Bill fortune — generated by pay-for-play influence peddling on the proposition that Bill would return to the White House under Hillary’s aegis and reward friends while punishing enemies — hit a reported $150 million some time ago, a fortune built not on farming, mining, insurance, finance, high-tech, or manufacturing, but on…
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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,…
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Schadenfreude
How much of your righteous satisfaction at another's comeuppance is really just Schadenfreude? Related articles How About a Six-Month Suspension Without Pay for Barack Obama? The Role of Envy in Human Affairs Saturday Night at the Oldies: Comeuppance, Schadenfreude, Spite, etc.
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Righteous Indignation
Is your righteous indignation perhaps only envy in disguise?
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Righteous Anger
That there is more anger than righteousness in our righteous anger is no argument against it.
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The Absurdity of Envy
You envy me? What a wretch you must be to feel diminished in your sense of self-worth by comparison with me! I have something you lack? Why isn't that compensated for by what you have that I lack? You feel bad that I have achieved something by my hard work? Don't you realize that you…
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Self-Control and Self-Esteem
"Self-control is infinitely more important that self-esteem." (Dennis Prager) Delete 'infinitely' and you have an important truth pithily and accurately expressed. With self-control one can develop attributes that justify one's self-esteem. Without it one may come to an untimely end as did Michael Brown of Ferguson, Missouri, who brought about his own death through a…
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Of Books and Gratitude
Occasionally, Robert Paul Wolff says something at his blog that I agree with completely, for instance: To an extent I did not anticipate when I set out on life’s path, books have provided many of the joys and satisfactions I have encountered. I am constantly grateful to the scholars and thinkers who have written, and…
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Three Profiles in Civil Courage Among University Administrators
There is no coward like a university administrator, to cop a line from Dennis Prager. But that is not to say that there have never been any who have demonstrated civil courage. But we have to go back a long way to the late 60s and early 70s. With apologies to that unrepentant commie Peter…
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A Note on Civil Courage
Responding to a commenter who states that one exposes oneself to tremendous risk by speaking out against leftist insanity, Malcolm Pollack writes: Most bloggers who write from a contrarian position about these things seem to use noms de plume. In fact, I do have another blog I’ve set up for this purpose, but I almost never…