I’m certain there are many others, but the first example I can recall in literature concerning today’s topic is a minor character in Charles Dickens’ massive novel “Bleak House.”
Mrs. Jellyby was a devout practitioner of what another character called “telescopic philanthropy,” meaning that she was so focused on expressing support for poverty-stricken members of distant African tribes that she completely ignored the needs of her own ill-clothed, malnourished family.
Today, thanks to a British journalist who reportedly coined the term in a column last year, we now have a new name for such activity. James Bartholomew, writing in the London Spectator on April 18, used an American example to lead off his article, “The awful rise of ‘virtue signaling.’ ”
He wrote, “Go to a branch of Whole Foods, the American-owned grocery shop, and you will see huge posters advertising Whole Foods, of course, but – more precisely – advertising how virtuous Whole Foods is. A big sign in the window shows a mother with a little child on her shoulders … and declares: ‘values matter.’
“The poster goes on to assert: ‘We are part of a growing consciousness that is bigger than food – one that champions what’s good.’ This is a particularly blatant example of the increasingly common phenomenon of what might be called ‘virtue signaling’ – indicating that you are kind, decent and virtuous.”
Indicating those qualities, that is, just by where you shop, without your ever doing anything to practice them. That would take effort, and it’s much easier just to spout off.
It’s much better, say, to enjoy a comedian who pokes fun at all the approved topics – social conservatives, gun owners, residents of rural areas (code name: “rednecks”), global warming skeptics (code name: “deniers”) and the like – than to take substantial action.
The audience can laugh, feel superior in the exclusive company of those who agree with them, and go home with a warm feeling of justification: “This guy sure put those awful people in their place.”
Easier, too, to be a politician for whom a higher minimum wage becomes a bidding war – “You want $10 an hour? I’ll give you $12!” “No, $15!” – leaving behind thousands of workers whose unskilled labor simply will not support such a high rate of pay. Who cares? I’m showing how compassionate I am, and that’s what counts. Bartholomew adds, “It’s notable how often virtue signaling consists of saying you hate things. It is camouflage. The emphasis on hate distracts from the fact you are really saying how good you are. If you were frank and said, ‘I care about the environment more than most people do’ or ‘I care about the poor more than others’, your vanity and self-aggrandizement would be obvious, as it is with Whole Foods. Anger and outrage disguise your boastfulness.”
Thus, the attorney general of the United States can tell a friendly senator in a recent hearing that the Justice Department has inquired if it can prosecute “climate change deniers.”
Not that she necessarily would (though, considering how the IRS treats conservatives, she might), but by uttering such comments, she signals the administration’s virtue on this cause to progressives while potentially silencing people who dare to disagree about it.
As Bartholomew says, the real advantage of virtue signaling is that “No one actually has to do anything. Virtue comes from mere words or even from silently held beliefs. There was a time in the distant past when people thought you could only be virtuous by doing things: by helping the blind man across the road; looking after your elderly parents instead of dumping them in a home; staying in a not-wholly-perfect marriage for the sake of the children. These things involve effort and self-sacrifice. That sounds hard!”
Much better to hold a disfavored political candidate accountable for his harsh rhetoric (fair enough, to be sure) but simultaneously hold favored groups to no accountability at all when they gang up in the street to prevent him from speaking.
And how often do we get told, whenever home-grown or immigrant Islamic jihadists attack someone in the United States, how much we all must beware of any kind of backlash against Muslims in general?
Again, it’s a fair warning – but we rarely seem to be told that when hate crimes against religious groups are reported, Jews are four times as likely to be targeted as are Muslims.
The Jewish magazine Forward reported on Dec. 15 that, according to FBI figures for 2014, fully 59 percent of religious hate crimes reported that year had Jewish targets, while 14 percent were aimed at Muslims.
If we need to issue cautions, they would seem more relevant if they were aimed predominately at protecting synagogues than mosques.
But where’s the virtue signaling in that?
M.D. Harmon, a retired journalist and military officer, is a free-lance writer and speaker. He can be contacted at:
mdharmoncol@yahoo.com
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