I thought I had a letter; one can only imagine my chagrin when I realized that I didn’t have a letter – I had just a concept of a letter. Oh well.
Readers probably tire of my insistent and consistent haranguing of the importance of the language and word choice. Here it is once again. This time I refer to one word. Not just any word, though. This one is of such importance that it deserves an entire column of its own.
The word? Hypocrisy. I will give the direct definition from the dictionary – a dictionary that is neither blue, red, or striped. Hypocrisy: the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform. A pretense of having some desirable or publicly approved attitude.
Interestingly, it is not even necessary to provide examples of the hypocrisy that surrounds and bombards us each day. If one looks at the definition and then looks and listens to the actions and voices of the population in this country, the examples of hypocrisy are so abundantly obvious that they are impossible to overlook. Ignore? Well, that is entirely possible evidently.
But even those who most loudly proclaim over and over about what they believe and hold sacrosanct in their lives cannot realistically deny hypocrisy when those same beliefs are not reflected in their behavior, language, and treatment of others. Hypocrisy has no allegiance to political affiliation or any specific religion or profession… at its very basis it is the same for all of us. It is a simple concept.
Think about it and then let’s share a conversation.
Billy Kreigh
Bluffton
