Kurt Mahlburg has an entertaining Tablet piece on what he calls the Montgolfier Award for Sustained Stratospheric Virtue Signalling. He gives his award as a Top Ten. Two examples are given below, but the whole piece is well worth reading as a reminder of how powerful virtue signalling can be.
And the inaugural Montgolfier Award for Sustained Stratospheric Virtue Signalling goes to…
Tenacious struggles against reality ought to receive public recognition
8. Davos (Switzerland)
It’s our award to give so we’ll consider a whole city full of virtue-signallers if we feel like it — in this case, the ski resort town in the Swiss Alps that plays host the annual World Economic Forum’s annual shindig, Davos.
7. Oxford City Council (United Kingdom)
In April of this year, news surfaced that Oxford City Council, in the UK, was planning to flog off some of the historic paintings on display in its iconic Town Hall to fund more “diverse” and “progressive” artworks.
2 comments:
Virtue-signalling remains a very important tool for us to make sense of our culture and its problems. It's not just objectionable people making much of their virtues, although that can indeed be annoying. It's also the other way around: well-known people who have got into positions of influence have a determining influence on what counts as a virtue.
Consider the likes of Attenborough, Lineker, and Stephen Fry; and of people who have been moderately successful in their ordinary jobs. If they merely signalled how good they were at their roles - what good broadcasters, actors, head teachers and entrepreneurs they are - they would merely be harmless braggarts. It's when such people pick up on ideas in the zeitgeist and peddle them; that's when the damage is done.
Fortunately, there is a built-in remedy. They can all be challenged on the grounds that they don't know anything about the virtues they profess to have.
Sam - yes, the fundamental problem is what counts as a virtue. They can all be challenged on their lack of knowledge, but there aren't many people doing that except on the fringes. The fringes may be growing though as new media outfits discover alternative audiences.
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