Saturday, 18 June 2022
Little Moral Barks
Deeply impressed with their sacred calling—for Mrs. Jackson would never have acknowledged that the Vicar’s wife held a position inferior to the Vicar’s—they argued that the whole world was God’s, and they God’s particular ministrants; so that it was their plain duty to concern themselves with the business of their fellows—and it must be confessed that they never shrank from this duty.
They were neither well-educated, nor experienced, nor tactful; but blissfully ignorant of these defects, they shepherded their flock with little moral barks, and gave them, rather self-consciously, a good example in the difficult way to eternal life.
They were eminently worthy people, who thought light-heartedness somewhat indecent. They did endless good in the most disagreeable manner possible; and in their fervour not only bore unnecessary crosses themselves, but saddled them on to everyone else, as the only certain passport to the Golden City.
W. Somerset Maugham - The Hero (1901)
There are many examples of how virtue has evolved over the decades. This fictional example highlights some stark similarities between meddlesome religious virtue and its modern version - meddlesome woke virtue. We only have to alter two words of the first paragraph to see the similarity to climate change virtue.
Deeply impressed with their sacred calling—for Mrs. Jackson would never have acknowledged that the Vicar’s wife held a position inferior to the Vicar’s—they argued that the whole world was Gaia’s, and they Gaia’s particular ministrants; so that it was their plain duty to concern themselves with the business of their fellows—and it must be confessed that they never shrank from this duty.
Sceptics often suggest that climate change campaigns are akin to a religious movement, but it may be just as useful to focus on the changing nature of conspicuous virtue.
It is no great stretch to see how little moral barks have evolved into the big moral barks with which we are more familiar. Our versions are backed by laws and regulations which cannot be avoided by simply not going to church. We see their unnecessary crosses on hillsides, generating unreliable and expensive electricity for all but the elites.
We’ll never break free from Mr and Mrs Jackson. They have evolved.
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4 comments:
You could make an argument that the earlier desire for Heaven and the current desire for Utopia are such glorious 'ends' that any intermediate 'means' are justified. How piles of dead bodies are justified in Crusades and Jihads, in Nazi pogroms and communist purges, and even the shattered lives of people who fail to acknowledge the 'glorious' end.
And yet people do try to improve themselves, to become more civilized over time. Just not quickly enough to satisfy those barking about other peoples' 'morals', in splendid unawareness of their own failings.
"eminently worthy people, who thought light-heartedness somewhat indecent": I've always assumed that people who don't appreciate light-heartedness are deficient both in intellect and character.
As well as the big stuff, there are still plenty of little moral barks. In the past, they were probably aimed directly at the victim, addressing them and pointing out that they were not doing well enough in religious terms. Now, they are normally self-conscious little barks which are uttered in one's hearing, hoping that one will either chime in with some similar barks of one's own, or risk being talked down to and patronised as being insufficiently green or woke.
The besetting and eternal sin of the British middle class meddler is, I think, presumptuousness.
DJ - yes people do try to improve themselves and in some respects we are doing that now by trying to focus on waste. Unfortunately it has become entangled in an unbending orthodoxy plus some crooked solutions which are not solutions at all, or only partial solutions.
dearieme - they are hard work too. Best avoided.
Sam - well put, presumptuousness is indeed the besetting and eternal sin of the British middle class meddler. The BBC is full of it.
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