an alternative to hypocrisy, The Mechanics of Virtue, aphorism 273

273

  1. Frustrated aggression can find a way to discharge itself through the exposure of another’s aggression.  By exploiting the humiliation of other subordinates, he gathers around him and his message a force with which to challenge the “dominant aggressor.”

  2. The old “virtue” failed, and we conceptualists imagine a higher rank through the “integrity of facing such a difficult fact.”

  3. The one who is aware of the animal mechanism cannot release aggression directly without condemning his own behavior as something stupid ... crude ... self-destructive ... undignified.  He is also however unable to redirect dishonestly.  Thus, because he is aware, his drive to discharge aggression is dammed.  Maybe he can only release by writing about it ... exposing the other two cases, in a supreme display of self-righteous behavior that he does not or cannot deny.  He takes this conscious indulgence as the only alternative to hypocrisy.  Even the destruction of integrity is merely his only alternative to hypocrisy.


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