Exploring the dynamics of human behavior and moral consistency in everyday life
The root of all hypocrisy is imperfection. We as people are not perfect. We have flaws, which is why we make mistakes. And that is what turns all of us into hypocrites. Because hypocrisy, by definition, is the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform. In other words, someone who has done things that they proclaim to be wrong.
For example, a few years ago, you had a way of doing things that you followed. But then something happened and your ways changed. Once your ways change, you automatically become a hypocrite. That’s because you no longer believe that what you did in the past was correct. But since you’ve already done them, you’ve already done something that goes against your current morals. Which makes you a hypocrite.
Just because you don’t realize that what you’re doing is going counter to your beliefs doesn’t make you any less of a hypocrite than if you actually do. Thus, ignorance and time do not excuse one of their hypocrisy. But the problem that most people have with hypocrisy isn’t with hypocrisy itself. It is the presence of hypocrisy without acknowledging that hypocrisy. In other words, someone who does something hypocritical but doesn’t accept that what they’ve done is hypocritical. Either because they don’t see it or they intentionally pretend not to see it.
If a person does something hypocritical and fully admits that it is indeed hypocritical, most people will have no problem with it. It’s when a person does something hypocritical but parades that it is not hypocritical that most people get angry. Because that is a falsehood which deceives people of the truth. And most people hate deception because it is unfair.
The nature of being rude is the way you work hypocritically; one of my friends shared his story he has gone through.
When I started my journey in the corporate world, during one of the telecalls with a partner, my boss heard me screaming. He called me into his cabin and started giving me a piece of his mind on how to communicate with partners. Being a greenhorn, I did not like the “gyan” and came out of his cabin after the customary nodding of affirmative understanding.
After some time, the entire office reverberated with a loud scream. It was coming from inside the cabin, and peeping into his cabin made us aware that the choicest of words were meant for the housekeeping boy.
“Sir yeh toh roj ka hai…khud paper kidhar rakh denge and mere par chillayenge!” retorted our Ramu.
“The entire office celebrated ‘save paper save environment’ day. Before going for a review meeting, the boss had taken printouts of a two hundred-page PowerPoint presentation!
When I started on my own learning and development business, I facilitated programs on empathetic listening. The same evening, I yelled at home at the drop of a hat!
A father admonished his son if he lies at home but he starts his office interaction with a lie when he was asked the reason for coming late.
A lot of big training organizations will lecture on how compensations play an important role in motivating employees.
While the same training organization would pay zilch to the trainers which are many times less than the money paid to the DJ wale babu of the evening party!
As a nation also, we pay more “respect” to our teachers than the salary!
A nation of hypocrites!
How old is this trait in human history can be understood by the following anecdote: “In the garden of Gethsemane, Judas Iscariot went up to Jesus and “kissed him very tenderly”. This was a customary expression of warm affection. But Judas’ gesture was only a pretense to identify Jesus to those who had come in the night to arrest him. (Matthew 26:48, 49) Judas was a hypocrite—a person who pretends to be what he is not, someone who hides his bad motives behind a mask of sincerity.
Judas is still living inside us.
Not only in the corporate world but every stratum of life we will find has Judas.
Hypocrisy is historic rather prehistoric!
We are all hypocrites. We cannot see ourselves or judge ourselves the way we see and judge others; as said by José Emilio Pacheco.
This hypocrisy is creating cracks in structures called character.
How do we avoid being a hypocrite?
How can we live up to our commitment and remove the mask?
Here are the few things we can practice:
• Practice Integrity
• Avoid judging others
• Improve your moral quotient
• Understand others
• Underpromise and overdeliver
• Think before committing
• Be detached from personalities and beliefs
The writer is a teacher and can be reached at aa*************@***il.com