The Errant Convenience of Hypocrisy
What is there about the human psyche that impels so many among us that it behooves them because of their social, political or celebrity status to become a beacon unto the world? To lead us into a world that they conceive of as superior to that which we inhabit? To bring their message of sanctimonious righteousness to those of us so utterly lacking in the ability to recognize the true values in life and living? Not that none of us should be immune to taking lessons from any source that we recognize as legitimately able to teach us.But it is the compromised high-minded among us that tend to extend their efforts the furthest and most emphatically to fulfill their own needs to teach us the way of the world and how to take our place within it, with their gentle and inspired guidance. We start out the process having the utmost respect for these people, for having attained their life's position, imbuing them with a sensitivity and creative genius somehow lacking in us.
And then, alas, discover that they are but straw men, their exterior upright and sound, the interior corrupted - just like the rest of us. The condition of mankind. But isn't it a miserable disappointment, anyway? Someone of the character, for example, of former U.S. President Bill Clinton who despite his fine mind found himself functionally incapable of looking straight ahead and keeping his hands from wandering, then having no compunction about lying to preserve his tattered reputation. We love him anyway, don't we?
Since we started off with American presidents, how about Jimmy Carter, that god-fearing failure of a president, but resounding success as a human-rights activist? Through his Carter Center in Atlanta, it is undeniable the man has done much good, sending his emissaries out throughout the Dark Continent to offer assistance where they can. His connection with Habitat for Humanity was a good and decent effort to demonstrate what ordinary people could aspire to, in helping their fellow man.
Then he somehow went off track, dissembling and fulminating and pointing fingers of blame in a one-sided tirade against a country assailed on all sides by adversarial proponents of Islam at its most rigidly doctrinaire. There's also the former presidential hopeful and sidekick of Bill Clinton whose stated concern for the environment pre-dated his vice-presidency and whose vintage activities culminated in An Inconvenient Truth, hailed as a Hollywood award-winning blockbuster, leading the good fight to save the environment.
Wouldn't you know it, Al Gore's personal lifestyle simply doesn't match his message for us plebeians. The staggering energy it takes to ensure his mansion chugs along nicely would do for 20 ordinary homes; his heated pool-house alone consuming what most households use in energy. Nary a blush. He has purchased carbon credits to offset his splendiferous lifestyle. Smoke and mirrors, anyone? Carbon credits! He has the imperial presence, the ready cash, so he can have his mansion and heat it too.
This is staggeringly awful; who can we trust? Well, how about Bono, for a good-hearted, determined saviour of the indigent and the oppressed, forever urging governments, including his own, to increase their foreign-aid budgets to ease the pain of an unprivileged life for the downtrodden? His message is right on; who could not agree there are such needs? In a sense, he does himself, seeing the utility in moving his taxable assets offshore to handy tax havens avoiding the punishing Irish tax system. Effectively leaving Ireland with less income which it is expected to assist underdeveloped countries with.
Hmm, our own, highly-respected and much-loved David Suzuki? There's a Canadian media star and nagger-extraordinaire and he's all our very own. He's been telling us for years that we're neglecting our environment, that we don't value it as we should, that we are incredibly wasteful, that we should heed the dire need of other creatures we share this planet with. He's right, and we admire and respect him for all of what he's done in educating us and encouraging us to be better world citizens.
So, imagine the disappointment when we discover that in his eagerness to educate us still further in encouraging our awareness of the environmental disasters already on our horizon, he and his entourage, travelling across this vast country, are unnecessarily adding to the particulate matter sullying our air through the use of a honking big 'celebrity-style' diesel bus whose capacity is far in excess of the needs of his modest 7-man crew. David! how could you?
All right, how about Michael Moore? Whose celebrated films have won him admiration the world over, for tackling the worst aspects of American capitalism, pointing out the wrecks, civic and human left in the wake of wealthy corporate depredation. He hounds his prey - nervous executives - and tracks them, and interrogates them, and embarrasses them, and demonstrates how shabby and hollow they are, poor elites.
Oops! what's this? Seems as though his films are a trifle less than honest in content; he has the unfortunate habit of showing that which underlines his message eliminating nuisance facts, kind of like fashioning a research project to reflect one's theory, right? So what happens when someone realizing just that, through the exposure that comes with actually working for and with him decides to ask questions? Nothing to discuss. Just go away. Well, how about an independent news person seeking an interview to clarify these misunderstandings? Um, too busy. Sorry about that.
Remember his dedicated pursuit in Detroit featured in Roger and Me? Tables have turned. Sorry: Mr. Moore is simply too busy; unapproachable, untouchable, unavailable.
Labels: Human Fallibility
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, March 22, 2007
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