Indignant behavior of a certain kind of behaviour in others is not a guarantee that the denunciators themselves will find it impossible to indulge in exactly the same kind of behaviour with a perfectly good conscience. This peculiarity of human nature has been insisted upon by Professor [Alfred] Vierkandt who illustrates it by a number of examples. The spectator will, he says, generally be more severe in his judgment than the person responsible for the action that is to be judged. Parents demand of their children, teachers of their pupils, superiors of their subordinates many things which they could not easily accomplish themselves, but which are nevertheless then performed by those in dependent positions, on whom a sufficient pressure is exercised. Meditations on the improvement of the character as a result of poverty are generally made by people who have never been poor themselves. The belief in the beneficial effects of war is most frequently vindicated by those who have never fought in a war themselves, and who cannot expect that they will be called upon to do it in the future. Our sexual ethics are not predominately determined by those on whom they impose a higher degree of abstinence than would otherwise be necessary. Professors who are to express their opinion on a scientific thesis will often do so on the basis of a much more exacting standard than they would ever think of applying to their own works. Vierkandt does not see anything objectionable in this. He regards it, on the contrary, as a wonderful mechanism in the maintenance of morality, which would collapse hopelessly if men were to be as forbearing with others as they are with themselves. The word hypocrisy is declared to be altogether too blunt for an adequate description of the attitude recommended by Vierkandt and, as he believes, adopted by a majority of mankind.

Svend Ranulf, Moral Indignation and Middle Class Psychology
Copyright © 1938 by Levin & Munksgaard — Ejnar Munksgaard, Copenhagen
Copyright © 1964 by Schocken Books, Inc. All rights reserved.

Posted 22 May 1996

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