{"id":30769,"date":"2015-03-26T03:00:07","date_gmt":"2015-03-26T07:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=30769"},"modified":"2019-05-20T09:32:53","modified_gmt":"2019-05-20T13:32:53","slug":"the-moral-superiority-of-those-who-point-out-things-we-should-feel-guilty-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2015\/03\/26\/the-moral-superiority-of-those-who-point-out-things-we-should-feel-guilty-about\/","title":{"rendered":"The moral superiority of those who point out things <em>we<\/em> should feel guilty about"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/takimag.com\/article\/the_importance_of_being_guilty_theodore_dalrymple\/print\" target=\"_blank\">Theodore Dalrymple<\/a> on those snooty types who can spot at great distances things for which &#8220;we&#8221; (meaning you and me, but not the speaker) need to admit our culpability:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Self-blame is no doubt salutary when one is truly blameworthy, but there is also a kind of self-blame that is exaggerated, insincere, grandiose, and exhibitionistic. It is also abstract and collective rather than individual; it is the kind of self-blame that intellectuals specialize in expressing on others\u2019 behalf and which requires no painful or difficult personal reform or change. <\/p>\n<p>Whenever anything terrible happens, or rather is done, in the world, \u201cwe\u201d are somehow to blame for it, not the merely apparent perpetrators. The root cause is always in us, the <em>us<\/em> in question being our biological, cultural, or political ancestors, but never <em>me<\/em> in particular. We are responsible, but I am not. <em>We<\/em> have done something to make <em>them<\/em> behave badly, and if it were not for us the world would be a peaceful, happy place. And to be ultimately responsible for all the evil in the world is at least flattering to one\u2019s sense of self-importance, the defense of which motivates an important part of many people\u2019s intellectual activity. <\/p>\n<p>The kind of guilt I have described is designed to demonstrate the superior moral sensibility of those who express it. \u201cI am not like the mass,\u201d that person tells himself, \u201cwho see only appearances. I, by contrast, make no hasty censorious judgments and suffer no vulgar prejudices, and see through to the moral reality of things with my gimlet or X-ray intellect.\u201d And in the process, he displays his superiority for others of like mind to see and approve; for they are the Brahmin caste of moral philosophy to which he wants to belong.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Theodore Dalrymple on those snooty types who can spot at great distances things for which &#8220;we&#8221; (meaning you and me, but not the speaker) need to admit our culpability: Self-blame is no doubt salutary when one is truly blameworthy, but there is also a kind of self-blame that is exaggerated, insincere, grandiose, and exhibitionistic. It [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[907,1289],"class_list":["post-30769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","tag-snobbery","tag-theodoredalrymple"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-80h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30770,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30769\/revisions\/30770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}