They bring together lies, perfidy, cowardice, and contempt for both principle and audience in a package that, if effective, is a terrible injustice to people who have earned their virtue.
Well, I think I can easily put my finger on the issue here. We see hypocrites very differently.
I see hypocrisy along the lines of "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." Hypocrites know they should do better, but for whatever reason, they don't. Maybe for the same reasons that people don't stop smoking, drinking too much, eating too much, and gambling. They vow to do better, hate themselves for not doing better, wish they could do better, but don't.
As La Rochefoucauld said, "hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue."
Whereas, it seems to me that you define hypocrisy as someone not even wishing they could do better. I agree that pretending to be virtuous when you have zero admiration for virtue and zero desire to be virtuous, just so you can sucker people into trusting you, is outrageous. It is the modus operandi of the Flim-Flam man, the charlatan. |
