Francis Berger
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Self-Righteousness Is Self-Wrongness

2/13/2019

4 Comments

 
​Leftism not only opposes righteousness, it is openly hostile to it. Righteousness is anathema to Leftism. The goal of Leftism is to do everything it can to ensure people stray from living righteous lives. Leftism replaces righteousness with self-righteousness, and seeks to make that the foundation and altar of life.
 
Self-righteousness can take many forms in the language of Leftism – social justice, equality, human rights, and so forth. The insertion of self into righteousness is the trick and the distortion – the replacing of perfection with imperfection. God is cast aside and the imperfection of Man is held up as perfection.  
 
Leftism urges people please themselves instead of God – to adopt a smug sense of moral superiority and embrace the idea that Man-made beliefs, affiliations, and actions represent the highest possible virtues. Self-righteous Leftism cannot tolerate the opinions, actions, and behaviors of those who strive to be righteous and considers these strivings to be laughable, outdated, regressive, hateful, and deplorable.
 
Leftism also deftly wields self-righteousness as a weapon and uses it to attack those striving to be righteous. In a deft sleight of hand, the Left accuses everyone else of being infected with self-righteousness.
 
“Who are you to judge us?” they demand. “It is you who are smug in your perceived moral superiority!  What gives you the right to believe you are holier than we are? Do not enslave us with your sententiousness – your excessive moralizing. We seek to be free and we wish to liberate you from your own sanctimonious morality.”
 
Seeds of doubt are planted and many abandon righteousness for liberation. Others withdraw and fall silent lest they themselves be judged.
 
Yet those who honor and strive for Truth, Beauty, Goodness, and Virtue are not immune or blameless, for some become self-righteous themselves. Some cannot resist the self-satisfaction of donning righteousness and displaying it scornfully for the world to see as they perform struts of unearned certainty and strike poses of unwarranted confidence.
 
And in my darker moments, I become one of them. Those times I rise from my chair and glare banefully at the world, convinced I can do no wrong as I mercilessly place others on the scales.
 
Utterly oblivious to shadow I have cast – to the self and the place it should not be.
4 Comments
Epimetheus
2/14/2019 00:21:35

Self righteousness is terrifyingly addictive. I notice that my self-righteousness goes up when I'm miserable and ashamed.

Reply
Francis Berger
2/14/2019 10:53:05

@Epitmetheus

Mine tends to go up when I am critical of others - the misery and shame follow afterward. Then comes the repentance and the vow to do better in the future.

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imnobody00
2/24/2019 16:45:58

"The goal of Leftism is to do everything it can to ensure people stray from living righteous lives. Leftism replaces righteousness with self-righteousness, and seeks to make that the foundation and altar of life"

I agree but not completely. The foundation of Leftism is selfishness. It is a religion where the PLEASURE or the SELF is the Supreme God. You say "Leftism urges people please themselves instead of God" The self-righteouness is very important but it is only a byproduct. Bruce Charlton put it very well here

https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2019/02/leftist-motivation-how-resentment-and.html

"Self-righteousness can take many forms in the language of Leftism – social justice, equality, human rights, and so forth."

The key is that this is not perceived as self-righteousness. Leftism is a religion (in fact, a sect of the Enlightenment religion) that denies it is a religion. So the labelling of virtue signaling (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue_signalling) in the areas of social justice as self-righteousness is very difficult to understand. The Pharisees, the church ladies that said that were the best Christians, the modern leftist are different in the religion they practice but not in the attitude (which is self-righteous and virtue signalling).


"And in my darker moments, I become one of them. Those times I rise from my chair and glare banefully at the world, convinced I can do no wrong as I mercilessly place others on the scales."

We all do this from time to time. Me included. The key is to learn and to strive not to do it. I think the key is to try to love the moral law independently of oneself. I am a sinner and ask for the mercy of God. This does not mean that the sin is good, even if I fall into it. The moral law is the thing to follow and, if I fail, I am wrong an the moral law is right. I cannot be proud because I am a sinner, but this does not mean that the sin is good.

The leftist goes in the opposite direction. Since I cannot stop sinning and I don't want to feel a sinner, I redefine "sin" as good, so I am good. Hence, I can feel self-righteous. But you can't turn off conscience. So when they see something striving for the good (let's say, a Christian), they know DEEP INSIDE that the Christian has the good attitude and the Leftist have the evil attitude. This makes them uncomfortable and they try to stop this cognitive dissonance by attacking the Christian person.

"Leftism also deftly wields self-righteousness as a weapon and uses it to attack those striving to be righteous. In a deft sleight of hand, the Left accuses everyone else of being infected with self-righteousness."

This is a fundamental trick. If you strive to be better, they will attack you for it. They are not against you. They are against the moral law. You are a collateral damage. They cannot attack the moral law so they will attack you to prove that the moral law is wrong.

Thank you for a good post, Francis. Take care.

Reply
Francis Berger
2/24/2019 18:24:30

Yes, pleasure is certainly a cornerstone of Leftism - that is what I implied with the "Leftism urges people to please themselves instead of God."

I have explored pleasure quite a bit in the past. Here's a post from January that covers some of the good points you touched on here in your comment.

https://www.francisberger.com/bergers-blog/in-a-world-without-meaning-pleasure-is-all-that-remains

There's also a character in my novel whose bases his whole existence around the notion that "pleasure is all we have left."

I read that Bruce Charlton piece the day he posted it. It's a masterstroke - pure brilliance - one of the best Prof. Charlton has ever written. Seems I am not the only one who thinks so. I included links to it in a recent post myself.

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