This story is apparently not going away any time soon, so I thought it time to comment on the trials and travails of Congressman Anthony Weiner.
The popular opinion seems to be that Weiner sexting young girls was no big deal; it was the cover-up that crossed the line.
In other words, there is nothing immoral so long as you are authentic about it.
Lady Gaga was interviewed on 60 minutes last Sunday. She said she does drugs like other celebrities did but she was different because she didn’t lie about it. It was apparent she believed her authenticity the equivalent of holiness.
Authenticity is the new righteousness standard of post-moderns, and this new standard is driving the public response to Weiner’s sexting and subsequent cover-up.
Post-moderns have it backwards. That Weiner lied about his conduct gives some hope he knew what he’d done was wrong. Authenticity offers no such hope. As Francois de La Rochefoucauld said, “Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.”
As long as we have hypocrites there is still hope for righteousness. GS
Well said.
Brilliant take. This valuing being “authentic” above all else seems like a more sophisticated, but no better, progression from the emergence of the “let it all hang out” and “me, me, me ” that emerged in our culture with the rise of the hippy generation.