Monday, February 19, 2024

In praise of hypocrisy, 8 of 8

           This Essay is Hypocritical

           Compared to such celestial heights - and abysmal depths - of duplicity, most mundane deception is naive candor. How anticlimactic, then, for this essay to end by denouncing itself!

          For consider this essay. It praises hypocrisy as a virtue - but does it possess that virtue? I say that it does just as much as it does not!

          For if this essay is hypocritical, then its praise of hypocrisy would express its own values; but that would be sincerity, not hypocrisy. On the other hand, if this essay is not hypocritical, then its praise of hypocrisy would be insincere, and that would be hypocrisy.

          If this essay is hypocritical, then it is sincere. If it is sincere, then it is hypocritical. Therefore this essay is as hypocritical as it is not. It sums to zero. Like hypocrisy itself, it has two faces. Its praise is ridicule and its ridicule is praise.

          That is why you, dear reader, need not take this essay at face value. You are free to misinterpret this essay any way you please.

          How convenient!

 

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