If I Cannot Call Them "Whited Sepulchres"....

I read "The Irish Independent" as seldom as possible but David Quinn spoke for me yesterday. Addressing one of the fits of righteous indignation into which the majority of the Irish commentariat has driven itself of late, he observed

[E]ven allowing for the caricature that Old Testament morality is all about judgment and condemnation, what could possibly be more judgmental and condemnatory, more 'Old Testament', than the avalanche of criticism currently pouring down... ?

He goes on to bring up the "H" word again, and while he uses one of less helpful meanings identified by me the other day , the point that he makes is an excellent one:

In fact, the liberal hatred of hypocrisy is extremely dangerous because there are only two ways to avoid hypocrisy. The first is to live perfectly, while the second is to preach nothing. But none of us is perfect, and therefore the only sure way to avoid the charge of hypocrisy is option two, to preach nothing and abandon practically all standards.

(If his intention is to say that only "liberals" - whatever meaning that term has in the Irish context - hate hypocrisy, though, I do not agree with him.)

As I said recently, I have pulled back from using the term "whited sepulchre" to describe the commentators who surrender themselves so glibly to extreme schadenfreude, but I would love to to find a replacement, as I expect to need it again before long.