CALL IT WHAT YOU WISH, I CALL IT A DOUBLE STANDARD

By Spencer K. Smartt

I read a post the other day by one of the three Amigos where he was touting the virtues of Integrity. After I read his post I had to respond then realized that this post would never see the light of day due to the forum I had posted it on. Right from the beginning I knew the censor “Victoria” would never let it out of the pending submissions box. So this prompted me to once again venture into philosophical territory.

When one is in the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he does not actually have, you have to consider that person nothing more than a hypocrite.   Plain and simple hypocrisy is the deception of others and thus nothing more than a flat out lie. It is not simply failing to practice those virtues that one preaches; it goes even further by creating a double standard by which we must now all live with.

The word hypocrisy comes from the Greek word which means "jealous", "play-acting", "acting out", "coward" or "dissembling". Which means the person that thinks he is the big shot doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground? Because he doesn’t know the difference between his own beliefs or his feelings he is doomed believe his own crap!

As to the actions of the actors in our drama our players want to believe they were “public figures” who were putting on a show of how smart they really were. In the 4^th Century BC a Greek big shot whose was a Politian who had been a actor before becoming a Politian, was ridiculed by his friend because he could not be trusted because of his previous position as an actor. They want you to believe in them no matter the cost. Destroy what you can before you get found out as a counterfeit persona that gives the modern word hypocrisy its negative connotation.

Some call it the “the tribute that vice pays to virtue", which of course certainly greases the wheels of social exchange, at the expense  of those people who are continually made and forced to make use of it. Their abundance of hypocrisy, of course leads to excessive tolerance of deceit and destructive behavior that they have more than they even realize
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A famed social scientist one referred to the “hypocrisy of people” as where they are not aware of the dark or shady-side of their nature.

As a kid I grew up learning that there were different sets of principles for similar situations. For example let’s take two different people in the same situation A double standard could take the form of an instance in which certain examples, a word, a phrase, a social norm, or rule are perceived to be  acceptable when applied by one group of people, but are considered unacceptable or taboo, when applied by another group. That’ a double standard.

This double standard can be described as a biased or morally unfair application of the principle that all are equal in their freedoms. One such case we see abundantly clear today is the Trevon Martin case in Florida. Such double standards are seen as unjustified because they violate a basic maxim of modern legal jurisprudence: that all parties should stand equal before the law, apparently not in this case.

Double standards also violate the principle of justice known as impartiality, which is based on the assumption that the same standards should be applied to all people, without regard to subjective bias or favoritism based on social class, rank, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age or other distinctions. It is quite obvious that the defendant in the Martin case doesn’t stand a chance.

We can even go back to the O.J. Simpson case and see this double standard being applied. A double standard violates this principle by holding different people accountable according to different standards. The phrase "life is not fair" may be invoked in order to mollify concerns over double standards but in the O.J.s case some decided that O.J. was going to jail one way or the other no matter what.

When it come to the LinkedIn forums and their moderators this is a despicable display of double standards if I ever have seen any at work before. The “Pending Submissions” box on every forum is a disgrace to the entire concept of “FREE SPEECH”.  Posts and comments that I posted to the NARI forum still languish there 8 months after I had written them in conjunction with the ongoing conversation. The moderator because he or she doesn’t agree with my comments just lets them sit! Who gave this individual the right to censor any part of the conversation?

Take yourself to the forums and just read some of the comments, it will not take you long to figure out if of the conversation is being monitored or censored. I just want to know what is so important to cover up that the moderator has to ignore people’s postings. Apply a double standard to some but not all and just flat our censor those that they disagree with!

Spencer K. Smartt

Founder and Charter Member

National Association of Contractors and Remodelers of America