It is now commonplace to say that hypocrisy is the substance of public morality, and that social relations are impossible without it. Fair enough, although not because of the consequent impression that it should be tolerated in its entirety. There is a limit, just as there is hypocrisies. Hypocrisy, like lies, is only justified when it prevents us from crossing the border of civility. Otherwise, what it does is differentiate men from scoundrels, and it cannot be admitted without also admitting the complete shipwreck of one’s own value.
Tag: behavior
Many Defects Are Tolerated…
Many defects are tolerated in public men, and many of them even seem derisory when moral clarity is found in them. Among his peers, this is so rare that, when it manifests itself, it seems to overshadow them all and overshadow his other qualities. In an arena dominated by falsehood and insidiousness, it is almost a miracle when we see someone who has not been contaminated.
Despite the Apparent Increase in Complexity
Modernity, despite the apparent increase in complexity that it has given to all sorts of ideologies, has simplified them to such an extent that today we can easily summarize the ideological debate into good and bad intentions. To say that it cannot be reduced to such a Manichaeism is to deny the ostensible axiological war that supports it and manifests itself in every word uttered and every line written. Everything else is secondary or irrelevant.
“Misanthropy Is Limited to Men”
The distinguished Marquis de Maricá says that “misanthropy is limited to men, it doesn’t include women”. Another mistake… Perhaps the maxim applies to recreational misanthropy, misanthropy when cultivated as a hobby; but not at all to genuine, professional misanthropy. This targets, or rather reacts to, human behavior, which is clearly different from that of a stone or a dog, and is present in both men and women. If a woman behaves like a stone, it is true that the misanthrope will spare her. But as long as, oh God, as long as she speaks, as long as she is capable of vibrating the strings and sonorizing a human voice, as long as she is capable of directing a word to another soul, and therefore forcing, impelling, constraining a communicative act and claiming attention for herself, the woman will inevitably be included in the list, the marquis is wrong and there is nothing to be done.