This unanswerable aspiration

She left the barb to rankle in Miss Gleason’s breast, and followed her mother to her room, who avenged Miss Gleason by a series of inquisitional tortures, ending with the hope that, whatever she did, Grace would not have that silly creature’s blood on her hands. The girl opened her lips to attempt some answer to this unanswerable aspiration.

William Dean Howells - Dr. Breen's Practice (1881)

The sanctimonious aspiration is as old as the hills and just as unanswerable as it ever was. Dishonest aspirations of this general type are not usually as explicit as in the above quote and those we see in the public arena tend to be political. Nauseating of coursed but essentially political.

Equality – we don’t want people to suffer from unequal treatment do we?

Feminism – isn’t it a scandal that women still have to demand equal treatment?

Profit – who supports profit for the few over decent standards for all?

Education – surely no child deserves to be left behind.

Environment – the planet belongs to everyone not just the rich.

General purpose – the future of our children and grandchildren blah, blah, blah...

And so on and so on. Such mantras which come in infinite variety are merely sanctimonious aspirations intended to choke off debate. In particular they are intended to evade a genuine exploration of human nature, difficult social realities and limited economic resources.

It is a kind of back-stop for situations where outright banning of free speech has not been possible or successful. Slightly more subtle than a hysterical harangue and almost always as difficult to handle as in Howells’ fictional case.

To begin with the assumed moral high ground has to be tackled and levelled off. After that nuances and complexities have to be introduced to set the stage for a discussion which is at least realistic. It is hard and unrewarding work and we should not be surprised if many don’t bother.

The land of official insolence

He makes you feel that you are once more in the land of official insolence, and that, whatever you are collectively, you are nothing personally.

William Dean Howells - Their Wedding Journey (1872)

Insolent individuals we may escape, avoid, ignore or deal with in any number of ways. Official insolence though, insolence as a political instrument, as an indicator of inescapable power - that kind of insolence is not so easily avoided. It is corrosive too, perhaps more insidiously corrosive than we ever imagine.

Assuming it was officially sanctioned, the recent Russian poisoning incident seems to be an example of official insolence. It highlights a difference between Russia and the West which will be noted by millions.

Or maybe that is a reason to be cautious when assuming that this was sanctioned by the Russian government. Clumsy insolence does not seem to be one of Vladimir Putin's characteristics.

Dutiolatry

It seems to me a proof of the small advance our race has made in true wisdom, that we find it so hard to give up doing anything we have meant to do. It matters very little whether the affair is one of enjoyment or of business, we feel the same bitter need of pursuing it to the end. The mere fact of intention gives it a flavor of duty, and dutiolatry, as one may call the devotion, has passed so deeply into our life that we have scarcely a sense any more of the sweetness of even a neglected pleasure. We will not taste the fine, guilty rapture of a deliberate dereliction; the gentle sin of omission is all but blotted from the calendar of our crimes.

William Dean Howells - Their Wedding Journey (1872)

Yes, some people are like that. Once they decide on something then pursuing it becomes a duty from which deviation is simply not allowed. Maybe we need such people but they can be frustrating to deal with.

Where they really belong

I think you can’t let people alone too much. For my part, if I try to characterize my friends, I fail to do them perfect justice, of course; and yet the imperfect result remains representative of them in my mind; it limits them and fixes them; and I can’t get them back again into the undefined and the ideal where they really belong.

William Dean Howells - A Foregone Conclusion (1875)

It is easy enough to grasp Howells’ point about not analysing friends too much, why we should leave them in the undefined and the ideal where they really belong. Friendships are fragile, easily damaged. Maybe the same caution also applies to certain acquaintances such as a good boss, a competent doctor or an amiable barber.

What about celebrities, favoured political figures or even football teams? Here we are inclined to turn the thing on its head - here we tend to leave them in the undefined and the ideal where they really do not belong.