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Thursday, March 5, 2015

The Writer's Life 3/5 - Hypocrisy

This is the first of four essays I found on old floppy discs. I wrote it eleven years ago. I believe it's still relevant. It's 1750 words, which means less than a ten-minute read. The title is In Defense of Hypocrisy:



   I once read an op-ed piece on how hypocrites were the worst kind of people. I don’t remember much about the article other than that I did not agree with its premise. The author was so adamant that I questioned whether I knew the true meaning of hypocrisy. Of course, we should try our best to avoid it, but I would argue that circumstances often lead us to it in an effort to create a greater good. It is a foible all too human and universal, and certainly far from the worst of us. Machiavelli spoke of the necessity of it in leaders. I’ll reduce it to everyday people.
   For instance, should a smoker refrain from telling his children not to smoke? As I see it, by definition it would make him a hypocrite, even if he is suffering an addiction that leaves him unable to quit a habit he knows may be lethal. Does only someone who has never smoked carry the moral weight to preach against the evils of demon weed? Has an ex-smoker gained that privilege? Does the fact that he would move to keep others from this form of rebellion, of fun he once enjoyed, make him a hypocrite? I suspect most would agree that a smoker should warn his children of the perils of smoking and that one who didn’t or encouraged the practice was negligent. And what if such reasoning is applied to the more serious issues of drug and alcohol usage? Some drug counselors were once users. AA was created by alcoholics. If they are hypocrites, I say hooray for hypocrisy.
   Many scoff at the sins of priests. Should the fact that they are as vulnerable as the rest of us preclude them from preaching against sin? Applied to the general population, such reasoning would eliminate everyone from rendering counsel. What type of world would that create? Of course, our standard should always be to refrain from sin, impossible as it is. Many often cite Jesus’ words in their own self-defense: “He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.” This was not a rationale for sin, which his ensuing words to Mary Magdalene, so conveniently overlooked by what is negative in our humanity, illustrate: “Go and sin no more.” Jesus insisted to Peter that perfection was possible. He appealed to what was best in his “rock.” Nowadays we seem to shrug and accept sin as inevitable rather than as something to combat. The prevailing message of modern film and music is one of helplessness, hopelessness, of a rationale for sin.
   For the record, I’m agnostic, so, technically, I’m a hypocrite for quoting Jesus. I’m doubly so because I would never tell a child that I doubted the existence of God, as the denial of a higher authority might be troubling to the very young and might give license to aberration to those whose hormones are raging.
   Until the late ‘60’s, popular music, even in songs of heartbreak and rebellion, was almost exclusively about positive messages, chiefly love that lasted a lifetime. Somehow, the intelligent questioning of life by the likes of Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Bruce Springsteen has evolved to a rejection of decency by many modern artists. In the words of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, we are “defining deviancy down.” I suppose a conservative like me is a hypocrite for citing someone with whom I’d otherwise never agreed.
   As an antidote to the ugliness that tops the current charts, I’ve taken to listening to standards. A friend has segued to modern country. Does the personal history of Frank Sinatra make his singing of a song like Bart Howard’s Fly Me to the Moon (“…you are all I long for….” “…please be true….”) hypocritical? If so, we should be grateful. The recording, arranged by Quincy Jones and backed by the Count Basie Orchestra, touches that part of the soul that longs for elevation. The best of Sinatra lives, the worst has passed. I suppose that modern artists who call to our hormones are proponents of the truth, of what is real. What is their aim – a widespread groping similar to this year’s Super Bowl halftime antics? I guess we’re already there to a degree greater than we’re willing to admit. There is abundant proof on the internet and in stories I read and hear concerning behavior in high school and on college campuses. And we shrug. We’ve even come to shrug at abortion. Only 40 years ago it was considered abomination. And many insist that we are puritanical. We are more like the French every day. In ten years what may we expect – “The Triple X Halftime Show,” and in 30 – “The NAMBLA Halftime Show”? We have created an adolescent’s paradise. Saul Bellow, writing of a previous generation, described it best: “…death is God….” – paraphrased: “Only death is real, therefore only the moment matters.” Although there was much to dislike about the halftime show, all focus seemed to be on the bared breast, an immature, desperate act designed to boost record sales, inappropriate for broadcast TV, however beautiful the breast might be. I was reminded of the promotion that preceded the debut of NYPD Blue, wherein a bared butt was deemed a sign of the growing maturity of American television. Had the butt been female, I might have made a hypocrite of myself and watched.   
   I hope these fears are just the silly hand wringing of a conservative or perhaps the envy of someone too repressed to partake in the sexual revolution. What is left for me but to hope that liberals are right? They’ve won in a rout, culturally and fiscally. Perhaps the fact that the likes of Nora Jones and Diana Krall have been able to crack the charts proves these fears are groundless.
   Does a woman traumatized by the termination of a pregnancy have the right to warn others of her travail? In the opinion of columnist Garry Wills, opponents of abortion who do not bomb clinics, myself included, are hypocrites. As far as I know, he has never dubbed as hypocrites those opponents of capital punishment, himself included, who do not storm prisons to free those on death row. The omission is a hypocrisy that condemns what he believes endangers the greater good, that is, execution. Obviously, he believes abortion promotes the greater good.
     And what about parents who have had multiple sexual partners, even those who have been faithful to their wedding vows – are they hypocritical if their counsel is more than condoms and birth control? I’ve yet to hear a single feminist complain that the actions of Mr. Timberlake might encourage hormonally enflamed males to imitate it – or to do worse. Is that hypocrisy or are they adhering to the greater good of sexual freedom? More likely, they are reluctant to attack anything left of center, where they believe the greater good lies. For years they condemned executive males who took sexual advantage of female underlings, then fell silent when their champion did so in the Oval Office.
   Am I a hypocrite when I deny each lewd or violent impulse, each slur that occurs to me? I hope it is the triumph of values and will. I always thought the measure of a man was the channeling of libido into accomplishment. The goal of many now seems strictly sexual. One reason for the invention of marriage was to allow people an outlet for the demands of the libido. This has been a foundation of civilization that has served it extremely well. What do we now call those who honor the vow of marriage: Sucker? Fool? Loser? Hypocrite? Isn’t it preferable to be a hypocrite to libido than to one’s word?        
   I worry that Bin Laden is right about us. I have the utmost confidence in our warrior class, but the rest of us seem to demand comfort at any price. And Republicans are now competing with liberals to be enablers of that comfort. Are they hypocrites or realists who try, futilely, to find the most cost-effective ways of providing programs, thus ensuring the greater good of a vibrant economy, without which we would all be lost? My hunch is that they are praying the genius of the private sector will continue to bail them out. I fear that the point of no return has been passed, that the mediocrity of socialism is inevitable. I suspect that all the money that was poured into the stock market was, other than a desire to get rich quick, a vote of no-confidence on the future of Social Security and Medicare. Hopefully, the economy will continue to run ahead of the government vacuum so that we will never have to see if morality and ethics really matter.
   I used to be a sports fanatic. I rarely watch any more. I can’t stand the behavior of many athletes. Modesty and sportsmanship are lost. It began with Muhammad Ali, who was influenced by Gorgeous George, a professional wrestler. Such behavior is appropriate for wrestling, which is a silly show, not true competition. Its entry into athletics has cheapened it. Recently, the New York Post ran a photograph from the ‘50’s that accompanied an article by Phil Mushnick, the foremost critic of modern sports culture. The picture was of battered hockey opponents looking each other in the eye and shaking hands. I immediately recalled Billy Smith, the goaltender on the New York Islanders four straight Stanley Cup champion teams. He refused to participate in traditional post-series handshakes, claiming it was hypocritical to salute an opponent one despised. He allowed himself to be governed by his baser instincts. Those two battered players rose above them, reached for what is best in man. Hypocrisy won the day.
   Although I’m 53, I still cling to the wild hope that a woman will suffer temporary insanity and have the children of this dinosaur. Although I’ve visited x-rated sites and viewed x-rated films, although I’ve written violent and sexually explicit scenes, although I’ve smoked ten cigarettes and four joints in my life, although I was fresh with women and occasionally behaved abominably on the athletic field, I would counsel my children to never do such things. I would gladly be a hypocrite in order to protect them, to show them the right path. Given modern culture, it will be an uphill fight.

Vic's 5th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/okxkwh5Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh
Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
Vic's Short Story Collection: http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tiny.cc/0iHLb Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kx3d3uf
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tinyurl.com/pdxwsnt
Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp
Vic's Horror Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3f
Vic's Web Site: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/

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