The Virtue of Hypocrisy
Hypocrisy is a virtue because it is convenient. Hypocrisy
liberates word from bondage to deed. It socializes costs, privatizes profit,
afflicts the afflicted, and comforts the comfortable. By virtue of hypocrisy,
your actions can be judged on the basis of your reputation, rather than the
other way around. It’s a double-win; it yields all the benefits of actual
virtue, for none of the sacrifice.
Its opposite, sincerity, yields
opposite results; all of the sacrifice, none of the benefit. No wonder, then,
that hypocrisy prevails. Both masses and elites prefer it to sincerity. The
rich, the poor, the young, the old, men, women, parents, teenagers and
children; all play double games. Hypocrisy is universally praised - by deeds,
if not by words.
And why not? Hypocrisy has a
kind of integrity; it’s loyal to the principle of self-interest. Mind you, it’s
a moment-by-moment illusion of self-interest; it’s doomed to fail, of
course; but when it does, why even that can be repackaged as apparent success,
and so serve much the same function as actual success. Here we see the
self-validating nature of hypocrisy; it simply dismisses refutation. It’s
disproof-proof.
Hypocrisy is a lie, and there
are three kinds of lies; white, gray, and black. White lies are harmless,
indeed benevolent; they avoid embarrassment and spare hurt feelings. Gray lies
are the half-truths that people stoop to in self-defense. They are regrettable
but inevitable. Black lies are the brazen lies of a career criminal. They are
crimes in and of themselves. Similarly, there are three kinds of hypocrisy;
everyday hypocrisy, relative hypocrisy, and absolute hypocrisy.
No comments:
Post a Comment