On the Failure of Morality aka Hello Hypocrisy

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It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues. Abraham Lincoln.

Perhaps I should have called this, the fall of the high and mighty. It has become a sad joke the number of politicians who rail against gay’s, who are themselves gay, who are disgusted by corruption who are then indicted for the matter, who proclaim morality only to be brought low by immoral acts or campaign reformers, who aren’t taking something under the table. ((as I side – I was going to link examples, but I don’t want that to be a party vs party idea. That would be distracting.))

The list of offenders are governors, Congressmen, senators and state legislators and on and on. Is it unfair to hold these men, any man above his vice? Are we not all mortal, and the 7 deadly vices are our temptation?

Yes I say. And Yes I can indeed hold them, these failures of men, above other who do the same thing. It is because of something called: Consciousness of Guilt. I could go two ways with from here. Point out that no person under a microscope can be purely moral or good. They will screw up. But I’m going a different way. I’m pointing out something else: Doublethink/Speak, the ability to hold two contradictory thoughts in mind and consider them both true. A Minister having a gay lover for years, and saying he’s not gay. A governor who has fought vice crime caught up in a prostitution ring. History has long recognized what happens when men of power, gain power. It’s also recognized that those who shout the loudest, do so to distract us from what they are doing.

• Burke’s “Thoughts on the Cause of Present Discontents”: “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”
• Lord Acton wrote: “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”
• Hamlet Act III, Scene II -.”The lady doth protest too much, methinks”.

Men of power are not the only examples of this failing, but I only hold no remorse for those that claim to be above the rest of us in their high moral standing and yet wallow in that very same vice. It’s the inquisition all over again. I know someone of really high moral standing. It’s a PAIN IN ASS to deal with him some days. It cause me pain sometime, and yet, I know where he stands and it’s made me a better person sometimes. In the 5 + years I’ve known him has not wavered once. He has my respect. It reaffirms my personal belief that those of a high moral code don’t write speaches about it, they just live it. None of these other people have my hard earned respect; just my disgust.

They deserve your disgust too.

OceansOfThought @ March 10, 2008