Heretical opinions: 2) Giles Fraser in defence of the Pharisees
Hypocrisy - failing to live up to your own standards - is often seen as the number one moral crime in modern society.
Giles Fraser argues in a very thought-provoking article on Unherd here that this is because it's often just about the only thing you can "get" someone on.
But he suggests that society itself is somewhat inconsistent when it mocks Theresa May for saying the worst thing she has ever done is run through a field of wheat yet pillories Michael Gove for admitting that he failed to live up to his own standards on cocaine use.
He argues
"The Pharisees were basically right: better to aim high and fail, than to be complacently content with the small and closed world of our own moral limitations."
"For me, hypocrisy is an inevitable by-product of upholding high – even objective – moral standards. If you are not a hypocrite, you are just not trying hard enough."
Giles Fraser argues in a very thought-provoking article on Unherd here that this is because it's often just about the only thing you can "get" someone on.
But he suggests that society itself is somewhat inconsistent when it mocks Theresa May for saying the worst thing she has ever done is run through a field of wheat yet pillories Michael Gove for admitting that he failed to live up to his own standards on cocaine use.
He argues
"The Pharisees were basically right: better to aim high and fail, than to be complacently content with the small and closed world of our own moral limitations."
"For me, hypocrisy is an inevitable by-product of upholding high – even objective – moral standards. If you are not a hypocrite, you are just not trying hard enough."
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