I’m musing on meaning today, after going over my social media feeds. The meaning of virtue, and the virtue signaling I see these days. The fact that everyone’s Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter is filled with evidence to construct a gingerbread, candy cane, and sweet-sugar icing version of their lives.
I wanted to know what virtue means to me, so I started writing.
| Virtue Signaling | Virtue |
|---|---|
| Follows the group |
Leads the group
“If not me, who? If now now, when?” ~ Rabbi Hillel |
| Public |
陰徳 (Intoku) “Good done in secret”
“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” ~ Matthew 6:6 |
| No skin in the game | Risk of loss; skin in the game |
| Primarily to raise one’s own in-group status | Likely outcome is loss of in-group status |
| Low energy investment (re-sharing on social media) | high energy investment (traveling to a place/ actually explaining a viewpoint/making concrete change in the world) |
| Takes the popular side | Takes the unpopular side |
| Motivated by desire/ego | Motivated by deep conviction |
| Usually as part of a group (lynch mob, committee decision, board statement, etc.), so no individual is exposed to blame
And so that everyone else can see you’re participating. |
Usually individual (slaying a dragon), sometimes small group (startup, small protest, etc.) |
| Pretending to be in the arena | The man in the arena |
| Cowardly. Afraid to play the game. | “Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It’s knowing you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” ~ Atticus Finch |
| Expedient | Right |