Quote of the day 18th July 2020

"It should be obvious that when we start measuring each other against inhuman standards of moral purity, nobody wins. So why would anyone get involved in the first place?"

Here we recall the example of Robespierre living among the images of his own impossible perfection."

"It's clear that anyone with a social media account has to some degree constructed a house like Robespierre's. Surveying our flattering photographs and our earnest posts about political causes, we are tempted to believe in the idea of our own 'incorruptible' virtue.

That belief is a dangerous one because it can never be true.

None of us are as morally perfect as we like to think."

"The myth of human moral perfection is a consolation especially attracgive to societies underoing bewildering social change."

"But purity is an unforgiving standard."


(James Marriott, extracts from an article in today's Times, "Twitter purists are Robespierre's children.")

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