Aisling Curtis | Staff Writer
There’s little as incongruous as austerity advice delivered from so humble a perch as a golden throne. But recently, David Cameron handed such suggestions to his long-suffering citizens, advocating in favour of a permanently “leaner and more efficient state” even when public spending cuts need not be as extreme. In fairness to him, Cameron did have a point. Constructing a state fuelled by less money is a nice idea, and we can all agree that we don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the boom. But warning that belt-tightening must continue while bedecked in black tie, ringed by gold and extravagance, is a manifestation of hypocrisy that we’re happy to sit back and publicly mock.
Political hypocrisy is deeply insidious; Cameron is only the most recent to make us cringe. In the US, hypocrisy is as prevalent as Wal-Mart. John Ensign tried to ban same-sex marriage in America, arguing that “marriage is the cornerstone on which our society was founded”, whilst engaging in a year-long extramarital affair. Scott DesJarlais won Congress on a pro-life platform, though it later emerged that he’d encouraged both his mistress and wife to have abortions.
As New York State Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer prosecuted two prostitution rings, but was eventually caught frequenting prostitutes himself; and that’s not to mention the larger institutional hypocrisies that suffuse society. After the French threw a tantrum about NSA spying, it came to light that they’d willingly handed over much of the information, and even gathered intelligence of their own. In June, when the damning Anglo tapes surfaced in Ireland, they cast into sharp relief the hypocrisy of our current political system. Fine Gael and Labour washed their hands of the tapes, draping full blame over Fine Fáil, and yet in 2011, when they assumed power, they had continued the bailout of the bankers despite full awareness of the economic atrocities committed during our legendary Celtic Tiger years.
Political hypocrisy exposes politicians to a curious effect: already largely disliked by much of society, their hypocrisy offers a neat justification to their haranguers. We reason that if somebody proposes one position and then behaves directly opposite to it any critique is automatically given weight. Rather than requiring evidence within which to root their opposition, people can cite “that one time” a politician didn’t do what he said everyone else should do.
And maybe it is the ultimate crime that our national and international leaders aren’t relentlessly consistent in the way they act. Maybe they deserve to be sneered at and attacked when they veer a little too close to our human realm. Despite already mocking their abilities in so many regards, maybe it’s fair enough to expect they transcend mortal error and always toe the line.
We reason that if somebody proposes one position and then behaves directly opposite to it any critique is automatically given weight
Except that this all seems a little unfair. We, the non-political folk, can’t deny that at times we’re all a little bit hypocritical; we say things, and our friends say things, that are either minorly or fundamentally at odds with our expressed behaviour. It might be something as basic and irrelevant as a strong stance against smoking, while allowing yourself a few sly drags on an uneventful night out. Or maybe that universal one – “I’d never cheat” – that snares the most ardent romantic despite intentions of the purest kind. Whatever’s your own personal recipe for hypocrisy, I’m guessing that at least once you’ve fallen into its trap.
Circumstances coalesce and combine. The situation can weaken the foundations of the most fervent proclamation, worming into the cracks of what you know you said to get at the heart of what you want to do. We are, after all, human. And with humanity comes an inevitable fallibility; your attitudes aren’t always going to line up neatly with your actions. As students, we rail on issues we’re not necessarily fully sure about; our opinions are grand and overarching, encompassing huge social, political and economic themes, with a foundation of research sometimes limited to a few news articles and things we were told by our friends. Inevitably, we’re going to wax lyrical on some topic and later go back on our word.
With humanity comes an inevitable fallibility; your attitudes aren’t always going to line up neatly with your actions
Thankfully when you make such a mistake nobody tends to notice. No paparazzi lurk to capture your hypocritical shame when you rail against the horrors of world hunger while enjoying a hefty lunch. Nobody enshrines your quotes in the permanence of the Internet, to resurface when you don’t abide by your past self’s words. When ultimately you fail to follow your own beliefs it’s easy to hope other people won’t remember. And, honestly, they probably won’t. Your embarrassing hypocritical faux-pas will be forgotten the second something more interesting comes along.
But from the warmth of our armchairs we hand out critiques to the political medley with judgemental ease. Though we know that politicians aren’t superhuman – and most of us think they’re a lot less than that – we expect them to keep their words firmly noosed to how they act. When they make mistakes that we’d likely make in the same situation, we hang, draw and quarter them with chilling glee. Though there’s no excuse for prostitution or extramarital affairs or deeply shady attempts to destabilise your political opponents, the human fallibility that characterises these mistakes is at least understandable. The political system is not Godlike, and its members hail from humble perches like ours. Hypocrisy is certainly detrimental to a functioning system, but the least we can do is understand the flawed human foundation on which it builds.
Of course, if politicians set themselves up as better than us then they must be subject to greater stringency. And political duplicity can be larger and more hypocritical than a casual smoke on a Friday night. But before we jump the well-worn gun and deride them for their deceit, we should at least stop and think. After all, in the course of their lives politicians do and say a lot of things. The thing is, so do we.
