‘I am sincere!’ she broke in, with more passion than he had ever imagined her capable of uttering.
‘I cannot call it sincerity. It is impossible that you should be sincere; you live in the latter end of the nineteenth century; the conditions of your birth and education forbid sincerity of this kind.’
George Gissing - A Life's Morning (1888)
An interesting passage where Gissing’s character says that it is not possible for people of a certain social class and education to be sincere in certain circumstances. Today we tend to call this hypocrisy, but it is useful to see it as a selective failure to acknowledge the real world, a failure to be sincere.
Insincerity is one of the roots of woke culture, accounting for that strange ability to blend ersatz sincerity with blatant virtue-signalling. To outsiders, woke rhetoric seems insincere because it is. It is not rooted in the real world, but in a politically ersatz world where ersatz sincerity is correspondingly necessary.
Today it is one of the problems faced by sceptics in a world where professional insincerity is no obstacle to advancement. It never was an obstacle of course. Yet although such cultural shifts are nebulous and diffuse, perhaps the value of sincerity has been eroded. It certainly seems like it.
A major problem faced by sceptics is that virtue-signalling is a widespread substitute for public sincerity, as are emotional outbursts, high-profile stunts, appeals to authority, arm waving and so on. But for sceptics there is a reliable guide through the swamp –
As for me, I will believe in no belief that does not make itself manifest by outward signs. I will think no preaching sincere that is not recommended by the practice of the preacher.
Anthony Trollope - Barchester Towers (1857)
Anthony Trollope - Barchester Towers (1857)
This of course is the guide to sincerity which is not ersatz - outward signs. It is the guide in our day just as it was in Trollope’s.
Today we know all about outward signs which point unerringly towards insincerity. The rich climate activist who travels by private jet, the celebrity with multiple houses, the journalist with a villa in a warmer climate, the callow young activist with wealthy parents.
It is impossible that you should be sincere...
It is impossible that you should be sincere...
8 comments:
I recall a line of dialogue from a movie I saw a while ago. "When you can fake sincerity, you've got it made."
I sincerely believe so, yes.
Famously well off people campaign for higher taxes (signalling their virtue) but the number of people that make voluntary 'extra' payments to HMRC are no more than a handful each year.
Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg famously sailed across the Atlantic to attend a conference to reduce her carbon footprint - but I have not heard of any further low carbon journeys so I conclude it was just a stunt.
Judge them by their actions, not how they assert others should behave.
decnine - I came across that line recently but can't remember where. I've looked it up and apparently it was originally from George Burns.
James - us and them, I sincerely believe it's a primary difference.
DJ - I'm sure Greta's Atlantic crossing had to be a stunt, a zero carbon version isn't possible these days without copying something like a Viking voyage in every zero carbon detail. I don't recall the BBC pointing that out though.
The mainstream reaction to her stunt was weird though, like parents walking around an infant school classroom pretending to admire the paintings on the wall.
The full crew of that sailing yacht flew across the Atlantic so she could sail, virtuously in a vessel made entirely - hull, mast, rigging, sails, paint,....- out of oil.
We were never told how her minders travelled. But it was not in a wooden row boat.
"a Viking voyage": the Vikings used iron nails in their longships therefore not zero carbon. How many pounds of wood did you need to make how many pounds of charcoal to make a pound of iron nails?
Doonhamer - it's not easy to work out how she failed to notice all that. Maybe her thoughts were taken up with all those complex climate calculations and projections.
dearieme - good point, a dugout canoe made with flint tools might fit the bill. It seems to be an area where climate worriers prefer to avoid because the meaning of zero carbon steers them towards more and more primitive living.
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