So two days ago I wrote a long post about evil. I wrote about how evil creeps into our lives either directly or indirectly. I also talked a bit about how often it is not deliberate conscious actions that bring about evil, but more often that not it is by our own inactions that we allow evil to manifest itself. Another often-overlooked action that I find disturbing, and that can actually help bring about evil is hypocrisy.
There is a definition on-line of hypocrisy that reads like this, “the practice of engaging in the same behavior or activity for which one criticizes another; moral self-contradiction whereby the behavior of one or more people belies their own claimed or implied possession of certain beliefs, standards or virtues.” I see these practices and behaviors in many of our politicians and other of high office. Unfortunately I also see them in normal people – my friends, my family, myself.
For instance, I have a friend who has a handicapped placard for his car. This will let him park in all those juicy reserved spots up close next to the doors of buildings. I have no problem with. That is what they are there for – he has a knee problem and his doctor decided he qualified. But, this is also the same conservative who decries all government programs that give aid to the poor or needy as government handouts that come out of his pocket and make the receiver week. Um, well I hate to tell you, but that handicapped placard is exactly the same type of aid. It is telling private businesses how they must run their private parking lots so that a certain group of people will have an advantage, or a leveling of the playing field if you will, when it comes to parking. Where it goes even further beyond is that this friend has a gym membership so that he can go to the gym and walk three to five miles on the treadmill every day or so. Yes, this is the same person who needs government assistance to get a preferred parking place. And, I must repeat, the same person who says government aid is bad.