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A snapshot of Rick Wayne’s TALK episode last week with guest MP Robert Lewis. Wayne has coined the phrase ‘Stop the hypocrisy’ but last week one of his callers couldn’t help it!
I had a terrific time fulfilling all my youthful dreams and at the same time making life miserable for hypocritical, posturing politicians and, I hope, performing a service for my country. —Robert Novak
I don’t lose that much sleep over, or after, prostitution not only because I can’t really afford to pay for sex but also because I believe people should be able sell just about whatever they want, including their bodies (incidentally, I don’t think people should be allowed to sell their organs though I’m open to a good argument.) I have just figured that prostitution cuts the pretensions out of conjugal relations; that way no one has any misconceptions about the hookup.
While we’re on that tawdry issue and since I have already shown myself to be an apologist for all manners of vice, I might as well take it to its logical conclusion and support what is probably considered the biggest one around here: hypocrisy. In fact, it could be argued that much of what’s wrong in St Lucian political culture is a result of our fanatical obsession with hypocrisy. But more on that later.
Judith Shklar, who devoted an essay in her book ‘Ordinary Vices’ to this issue beat me to this insight by a couple decades and Plato by even more but the only thing more overrated than hypocrisy is probably originality.
In Shkla’’s essay, entitled ‘Let Us Not Be Hypocritical,’ she argues that not only is an obsession with hypocrisy unwarranted but that a measure of hypocrisy is necessary for the proper functioning of a liberal democracy. Ultimately, there are many things worse. One of the main problems with hypocrisy is that it too often drifts into ad hominem, resulting in us critiquing personalities rather than policies; our politicians, instead of being means to an end are transformed into ends themselves. And even when we can concede that a policy prescription is good, we then get bogged down in questioning whether the motives of the person proposing it are pure.
Take our recent controversy over concessions. Richard Frederick responded to Kenny Anthony’s accusation by making almost no effort to deny the claims but instead drags in Ronald Ramjattan. But what’s really damning is that Frederick doesn’t even attempt to accuse Ramjattan of wrong doing per se, he just uses him as a case study for Anthony’s apparent hypocrisy. Frederick then further indulged in the irritating habit of tossing up rhetorical questions which seem to stem more from a desire to raise rust than bring clarity to issues.
Furthermore, on a recent episode of the TALK, some clown with a limited grasp of the facts of Rochamel decided to bring it back up anyway to fire away at the hypocrisy of Kenny Anthony. (Of course this caller isn’t the only one or even the most important example but I’ll pick my quarrels.) This caller seemed to have superficial interest in the legalities of the issue at hand and indeed made absolutely no attempt to deal with it. This leads to a mindset where accountability is just a means to a political end with no intrinsic value, which of course is another example of the fact that some of the biggest problems in St Lucia will receive no attention once there is a political consensus on it. But this is not to say that hypocrisy is completely a contrived issue; it is rather problematic, just not in the forms we usually attack.
In his essay “Hypocrisy and Democracy,” which was a critique of Judith Shklar’s essay, Dennis Thompson argued that while she is right to downplay the importance of individual hypocrisy, which is the type we love to rail against ad nauseam, but what is actually very pernicious is institutional hypocrisy, which doesn’t necessarily require the individuals who are of the institutions to be hypocrites per se. Now I should point out that I am referring to individual hypocrisy and not institutional hypocrisy. By institutional hypocrisy, Thompson refers to when our societal structures are going against their intended purposes. This is a much more serious charge. We are fortunate, perhaps, that our institutions tend to be dysfunctional as opposed to hypocritical (I am not eminently qualified in this area, but we should ponder what category our current Attorney General is in.)
One of the problems I have picked up in recent discussions about constitutional reform is that some people either think that our current system would work well if we had honourable men while on the other hand, I believe that we must operate under the assumption that we wouldn’t always have citizens of the highest standards in office at some point. In other words, in our effort to eradicate a rather benign type of hypocrisy, we are not placing the checks and balances in place to guard against a more malignant strain, which is often ignored because it doesn’t fit our preconceptions.
Thompson also makes a distinction between two types of anti-hypocrisy: specific anti-hypocrisy and general anti-hypocrisy. The first is aimed at a specific person over definite statements, for example, the politician who espouses family values while cheating on his wife or the one who is tough on drugs while his own son is a stoner.
General anti-hypocrisy on the other hand seeks to assign motive. I’m tempted to think of the initiatives by Martin Carasco a few months ago, which had been criticized by some in the public because according to them he wants, or wanted, to be the Commissioner of Police. Apparently the suspicion that he wanted to be Commissioner was enough for many people to dismiss his efforts. As Dennis Thompson one writer so eloquently put it, a liberal democracy without illusions requires the illusion of virtue from public officials to maintain the public trust.
The point of this argument is not to give politicians the benefit of the doubt per se; instead it seeks to shift closer to a more utilitarian. Indeed, Jeremy Bentham would completely reject the notion of motive based criticism. Though I wouldn’t make such a commitment, I am rather sympathetic to this position in part because it is a logical fallacy to infer that just because the motives behind a policy are impure that the policy itself is bad. Also this promotes a sort of cloak and dagger sort of discourse where we are constantly searching for what lies beneath. Think of all the times that those in discourse constantly refer to some shadowy investigations which will vindicate all of their biases, though ‘release’ of the recent Commission of Inquiry should throw cold water on that for a while, I hope. This ultimately takes politics out of the realm of public discourse and limits it to those with special access. Without the proper ventilation of these issues in the public square, it is difficult for the public to genuinely hold officials responsible.
A basic type of hypocrisy is when we get all get chained up with intentions. So we end up in a situation where people argue that Kenny Anthony is addicted to power, which may well be true, yet John Compton who spent most of his adult life either as Chief Minister/Premier/Prime Minister or trying to get there had no interest in power and was just trying to help the people. Why? Because he drove a pick-up. Indeed, it’s not entirely out of the question that an astute politician like Compton was smart enough to know that he could exploit his low maintenance lifestyle and spin it for political benefit. After all, sincerity can also be manipulated if not manufactured. Indeed, one could legitimately argue that, contrary to his hagiographers, Compton’s final run was fueled by at least as much ego as altruism but that’s hardly unique.
Still we are left wondering how exactly would one go about proving that they are sincere? And more importantly to what extent does that even matter? These sorts of speculation are fueled by the need for people to establish personal connections, either real or pretended, with their leaders. This desire to to have a leader we can identify with explains why good ol’ boy George W Bush was elected over the stiff, professorial Al Gore. This also makes it difficult for a high-minded politician to be very successful in this part of the world; if anything, this striving to raise the standards of public life often becomes a burden because it opens one up to easy accusation of being two-faced, which in part explains why many of our local commentators are quick to establish their credibility with the public by presenting themselves as paragons of decadence. Well actually they don’t go that far, but we all know what they mean . . .
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I commend you for this piece. Too often I see our people cling on to the propaganda without any analysis, whatsover. Educate my people.
THE MADNESS WILL END ONLY WHEN WE EDUCATE THE AVERAGE MAN ON THE STREET…….MY PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING AND DONT EVEN KNOW IT………ENOUGH TALK………TIME FOR ACTION
It is all politics….hypocracy, democracy and all the cumbaya u just preached…all stem from and are nothing but tools to power. Power of course being synoninous with politics. Ive been reading the 48Rules of power and it is quite enlightening. We perform acts to achieve and sustain power everyday…yet we are hypocritical enough to assign to these actions virtues, law, ethics, morals, and even religion to defend our actions. Kenny Anthony for example never said that his actions in the Roach ah mell affair was right or wrong…only that it was legal….the same for the Mondesi-gate, and even bill clinton used the legal definition of sex to defend his oral breifing by Monikah. My point is that i not only agree with u, I believe that we as human beings are genetically hardwired to believe that people should not be hypocritical, while at the same time reproducing hypocritical acts daily!!!
keep it going rick …great job exposeing the truth…….the only statue i will support is one of rick wayne…because he is keeping his word…BRINGING THE TRUTH TO LIGHT……EXPOSE THEM….dead or alive
Enlightening piece and “toot too boo she” comments are bang on target. how may of us are conscious of this condition and can deal with it?
The problem is we always confuse political life with that of a higher and more civilized standard, when in actual fact the game of politics involves the lowest and nastiest of human qualities. Why do you think any one person should symbolize those fantasy expected qualities that you want your children to follow? Only you can save yourself, the politicians are too busy feeding their low self esteem and plundering the public purse in order to coushin that butt wiping date at the old folks home near Pitites Piton.
Legal is used where moral is lacking.
Morality is a false concept since God does not exist.
It would do us all well to remember the saying “hypocracy is the homage that vice pays to virtue” and that hypocracy is as inevitable as vica and virtue
there we go again . we trying to outword each other…..action is the only verb i am intrested in,because for sure we all know the problems and by now the roots …damn it! lets just get together and solve them…..by now we know only crazy people keep doing the same things the same way and expect a different result….let us all wake up our sense of pride and love for our country and put an end to a political system based on HYPROCRISY………………….
Ideals are the birth place of all hypocrisy. Nationalism, pride. loyalty and patriotism are some of the worst ills to avoid. So, to all those who preach an ideal to others, you are in fact the cause of most of the hypocrisy. The concept of honesty is mostly how you choose to judge yourself, the society has nothing to do with this. It might appear so, but really you do not need public approval to live your true life.
The dots are too far apart in this piece for me to determine what point Mr. Hunte is trying to make, or is it pointless and merely the ramblings of someone who’s had too much wine on a Sunday evening?
We have as a people an inherant masochistic need to be less than we are, pinez, malaway, mealy bugs, we have in the past helped to create our future by ensuring that generations of lucians keep crying : nous se malaway This is a cop out : We keep repeating past mistakes for example We grew bananas , gave them to Geest to take to the market, we then bought all of his ships to ensure transportation and this was heralded a victory and we then begged the supermarkets to buy our bananas The solution would have been buy for Chastenet in a deal with JQ to buy 2 fist class tickets to LONDON cost - 5000USD
Stay one week in Dorchester cost 5000 GBP a taxi and chauffeur 1000 GBP inquire about space for supermarket in UK 20000 sq ft purchase supermarket 1 Million GBP install the refridgerators necessary spend 1 million GBP for advertising cut out the middle man and pay our farmers what they need to receive for all the hard work and compete in the market thus guaranteing the country foreign exchange and locals international jobs The can use this same business to source products to lower costs for our consumers This instead of playing in this little market this is what killed JQ failure to expand and to reoxygenate money is blood for a hobbian business This is just a scenario I ask the same persons to look at the tourism industry and do the same rather than ITB berlin hey set up an office in BERLIN deal directly with the tourists and stop playing games!! it is senseless . These are two ideas which are common sense and which an MBA student can prepare a proposal in one night …hey lucians wake up and stop feeling sorry for yourselves and attack the hypocracies I am not at liberty to express my activities but I am pushing global the world is in your hands !!!!!!!!!!!!! take it! I have done the first class and dorchester myself and I will stand for nothing less its great being served instead of serving try it sometime and stop looking down
i wonder if rick knows that sometimes you delete the truth…that too is hypocrisy
I dont really care!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Everyone have a little bit of hipocricy in them
The following is in response to Jean-Baptiste who denies the existence of The Almighty and also believes that “morality is a false concept”.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. (Psalms 14:1)
Peace
What a load of psuedo-intellectual ramblings; it is important that this sort of self-deluded rant is not mistaken for critical analysis or form the basis of a insightful evaluation of the so called ills of society.
The writer seems to posit the proposition that all societal values its moral and ethical foundations should be founded on the principle that everything has a price and is up for sale dismissing the need for elevated principles and aspirational ideologies as a point of reference to evaluate the appropriateness of a persons actions.
History reveals that man’s nature is that of excess, programmed by his survival gene to consistently and persistently push the boundaries. In the interest of restraint the avoidance of chaos and a might is right mentality a consensus must be arrived at of what is desirable behaviour and what is not , with a view to protecting the weak and vulnerable, not a utilitarian philosophy which does not account for the needs of the minority and will lead ineluctably to a tyranny of the majorities over the minorities (including those holding the majority of the resources and monies using it to exploit those with none of little).
The assertion originality is the only thing more overrated than hypocrisy reveals a fundamental flaw in the writer’s capacity to utilize his powers of reason. Originality is what has defined every era that man has encountered, innovation and new ways of thinking and or doing is the cornerstone of human development and particular relevant in a highly competitive Information Age.
Rather than an abandonment of the time tested principles of a liberal democracy with its concerns for the protection of human rights and a social contract between the people and the state, what may prove more useful is to inculcate into the peoples psych a very heavy does of scepticism, the tools of critical thought and the inspired courage to act in a capacity building evolutionary manner when politician step out of…
Rather than this inane discourse on hypocrisy what is required to progress the political and economic develpment of St. Lucia is a capacity building and people empowering analysis of the nature of virtue and how adherence to the emergent priciples of various virtues can be designed or hard wired into the political system; such that the actions of politcians can be very closely scrutinized and the rule of law upheld. .
Woodsman:
I am corrupted with my reality and truth, you are simply a coward follower of the dreamed ideas of some one else. Don’t be so hard on yourself, you have been brain washed and conditioned since birth, be strong, don’t be so frightened of this paranoid maco God who follows your boring existence even into the washroom.
jean-baptist…We were just talking about “Hyprocrisy” and there you go again.
To you God does not exist.Well the fool has said in his heart there is no God!
But every knee will bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord! So cut the hyprocrisy and stop trying to show off what you will never be.Your day is coming soon that you will regret this and call upon the only name of the most high God.Be a man and stop playing like a little girl menapausing.Are you trying to make up for your lack of manhood?
Grow up idiot…hypocrite!
I hate hypocracy…as a christian, if you bad I can deal with you ,if you good too, but pretentions, 2 faced rubbish I abhore. Don’t be making out you something you ain’t. I like wat u see is wat u get, nothing underlining.
First of all why can’t people be up front in their relationships? If you want a sex partner tell the person and they will or should comply or not. If youwant the person to feed and look after you and your children, tell them that too. Politions and lawyers same kinda people….twist the law to suit their needs.
As for Jean Baptise…Morality blah blah. I am glad that someone taught you to write, but your views are shi……….. Look at the state of St.Lucia…a wider picture the world.We have disgarded morals for what.Teens who cannot even hand in home work at school on time, pregnant and one on the way.Where is the daddy?No where to be seen.But what use is he anyway if his education level is no better than hers anyway. That our young get drunk and fall about in the street, end up sleeping with whatever…pregnant…same story really. Difference is that the state picks up the bill for the unwanted pregnancy, the abortion, that follows. If they choose to have it the state still picks up the bill and we in the church get to know another child abandoned by unable parents, until social services can find them a home.
Morals we have no morals.What is the high light of the BLACK persons life ?Good times.Canaval…jumping up in the street with little clothes on.Why is it that people always seem to be standing by the side lines pointing and laughting?I s there something that they know that we don’t? I wonder.
You continue to use your big words and push you useless views. Be sure you have the answers at the end of the day to who ever it is that we answer to. Oh yea! for me it is God.
Lucian spice…we don’t all have a lil bit of hypocracy in us. To thyself be true.If I don’t like something, my face shows it..rude as it is.I cannot lie but will not deliberately hurt a persons feelings, but I will make my feelings very clear. Pretending that something is what it is not is lying to ones self as well as to the other person isn’t it?
BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH. Andy thanks for the sound, constructive business advice. Most of what SOME of the others wrote is nothing but rubbish. Have we arrived at a conclusion? What is the way forward? It’s high time we moved away from this ‘avocat tee papier’ rumshop nonsense. The only difference is the use of words and phrases which have been regurgitated from some University text book or the like. Everybody wants a 3500sq foot house full of arches in their balconies. Where is the money coming from when we all set up businesses similar to that of our neighbours and sometimes friends, just because we believe that theirs makes money. Where is the originality, when can we as a people have a global voice. A power to bargain on an International level? Hypocrisy? St Lucia is blessed with it. We have taken most of mankind’s share of it. The thing seems almost inbred and at its highest levels too. We need to discuss how we can stop or atleast cut down on the daily killings. Create employment, educate the masses, feed our old folk who sit outside the Court House. Instead, we all want to drive Q7’s, Ranges and oh our national car, BMW’s. Even if it kills us or we don’t pay the contractor the full price for building our homes, we plan to remortgage ASAP to buy Porshe Cayennes. We need to wake up, smell the coffee then drink some of it to make sure that we are awake. Give God the glory, all of it and lets start caring for one another. Lets love each other, after all we are probably all related to each other anyway.
Caz:
I don’t know why you would Velonize my writing style, I stay away from big words because usually their meaning eludes me. You are punished by some sort of moral code, one which has you displaying fits of anger if others behave differently. You are a conformist who was conditioned from birth to fear your imagined God, sadly you have missed the point of life, finding and knowing yourself.