Easy to avoid hypocrisy when you have no standards (or) We have to be perfect but they do not

{ANYONE GOT A COOL/APPROPRIATE PICTURE?}

I believe in getting good grades. Students should aim for straight A’s.

I did not always get A’s in school.

Does that make me a hypocrite?

I believe in being kind patient and generous. Husbands should love their wives. Dads should love their kids.

I am not always a very good husband or father.

Does that constitute hypocrisy?

I find it fascinating how popular culture works. Take the case of Carrie Prejean aka Miss California. She has the temerity when asked about same-sex marriage to say she believes marriage should be between a man and a woman. (You can disagree with that. Because this is not about same-sex marriage yea or nay.)

It appears there now is an ongoing campaign to destroy her publicly. Breast implants. Posed semi-nude for a lingerie advertisement when she was 17. Supporting the National Organization for Marriage. All(?) of which may violate a contract she signed. Not only did she lose the Miss USA competition because of her answer (according to the person who asked the question – whose name I will not type) but she may lose her status as Miss California as well.

One is curious about the other 49 woman in the Miss USA competition. Whether any of them ever violated any of the terms of their contracts. If there are similar efforts to investigate and expose them as well.

The conclusion we are being asked to draw of course is that Carrie Prejean aka Miss California is a hypocrite. She claims to be a Christian with high moral standards. But breast implants semi-nude pictures and contract violations. She says one thing but does another. She is a hypocrite.

I do not defend her alleged or non-alleged actions. Here is the point. She advocates high standards. And apparently does not live up to them perfectly. She is a hypocrite. And can be humiliated and destroyed publicly on that basis.

Of course – it is much easier if you have low or no standards to begin with. If you do not give a flip about… well… almost anything… Marriage? Whatever. Posing nude or semi-nude? Who cares. Cosmetic surgery? If you can afford it. No one can accuse you of hypocrisy if you have no standards.

I think students should aim for straight A’s. I did not always get A’s. Therefore I am a hypocrite. At the very least a failure.

He thinks students should be satisfied with whatever grades they get. He does not get straight A’s. Therefore he is not a hypocrite.

And how about Bristol Palin daughter of Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska? When during the 2008 presidential election season Bristol Palin became pregnant by her boyfriend to whom she was not married – what was the cry from popular culture and mainstream media?

Sarah Palin advocates abstinence before marriage. Her daughter did not practice abstinence. Therefore Sarah Palin is maybe not a hypocrite as such but at the very least some sort of failure. She advocates standards which members of her own family do not maintain or least not perfectly.

Now Bristol Palin is making the circuit advocating abstinence for teenagers. Interviewers ask her pointedly “how can you of all people promote abstinence when you did not practice it yourself?”

(I suppose we could ask that of someone who advocates drug-free living who once struggled with drug addiction. “How can you of all people promote staying away from drugs when you did not do that yourself?”)

Bristol Palin advocates a standard that once she failed to maintain. Does that invalidate the standard? Does that make her a hypocrite?

Of course – it would be much easier if… Sexual relations before/outside marriage? Go for it. Addiction to drugs or alcohol? If it floats your boat. Racism? Yeah sur- … hey wait a minute! No one can accuse you of moral failure if you have no moral standards to begin with.

So the left (via popular culture and mainsteam media) can demonize castigate ridicule criticize people like Carrie Prejean and Bristol Palin (and by extension her mother Governor Sarah Palin – of whom I am not necessarily a fan) and not worry about the same thing being done to them. They have motes in their eyes! They have no legitimacy!

Meanwhile these moral(?) watchdogs on the left either have no beams in their eyes or hey if you want beams in your eyes that is just fine who cares nothing wrong with beams!

At this point some will accuse me (or other critics of the left and/or of popular culture and mainstream media) of whining. Aw… poor wittle Christians… conservatives… Wepubwicans… can’t take cwiticism or exposure of theiw hypocwisy.

Fair enough. Seriously.

Because on the one hand we can and should push back with two simple points:

1. Just because someone fails to live up to the standards they advocate does not constitute hypocrisy or render invalid those moral standards. (Do we make theft legal because there are thieves?)
2. It is easy to avoid being accused or moral failure or hypocrisy when you have low or no standards to begin with.

But on the other hand we have to be honest with ourselves.

We have to be perfect. We cannot afford any mistakes or moral failures or even the appearance of hypocrisy. We cannot give the opposition any ammunition – real or imagined – whatsoever.

So people like Governor Palin cannot afford any mistakes or failures. When she talks about that “bridge to nowhere” she must get 100% straight her story. There cannot be any lingering questions about whether she improperly pushed for a former brother-in-law to be fired. And so on. (Yes I know it is too late for this. And no I am not endorsing or defending Governor Palin. I am trying to establish the point – “we” have to be perfect.)

Carrie Prejean cannot afford to have any nude or semi-nude pictures anywhere at any time. She cannot afford to break or even maybe sort of stretch any of the terms of her contract. (Too late perhaps. I know. Just trying to establish the point.)

Republicans – and this time I am sort of endorsing them – cannot afford any mistakes or failures whatsoever. All their facts must be straight. There cannot be any violations of ethics rules whatsoever. There cannot be any affairs or bribes or prostitutes or sexual harrassment or propositioning of interns or porky earmarks or anything of the sort.

“We” – whoever we happen to be – have to be perfect. True the “other side” – whoever they happen to be – do not have to be. They can do whatever they want and not be accused or hypocrisy or moral failure. But “we” do not have that luxury(?).

We have to be perfect.

UPDATE (May 08, 2009): Apparently Greg Gutfield has written a piece at Big Hollywood (today) that makes almost exactly the same point. Did he read my article? Or are we just on the same wavelength – because similar forces produce similar results?