our own hypocrisy, The Mechanics of Virtue, aphorism 274

274


How can we identify and expose our own hypocrisy without presupposing something else of fundamental value and for which we sacrificed the error?  When integrity demands its own destruction, one has in fact presupposed a higher standard ... a private standard that resists mere “identity” and “display,” but which survives within the private thinker.  Thus, when we kill integrity by exposing its hypocrisy, integrity resurrects ... and calls to shame again the intellect which had condemned the very standard to which it appeals – for a higher moral judgment has indeed taken place.  The “higher” standard?  We understand the impetus ... and do not fail to exploit it.  Recognizing our own hypocrisy is our last claim to integrity; the rest is complacency.

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