Monday, November 26, 2007

Aldous Huxley

To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior "righteous indignation" -- this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats. -Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963)

A typical muddled usage. What do the words mean when an action is done with "good conscience" and yet is named "bad behavior"? (This "most delicious of moral treats" makes me think of the witch's magic candy in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.) There are two possible scenarios. Society calls my destructive action "bad behavior," but I know it is actually good, so I do it in good conscience. This cannot be what Huxley has in mind, or he wouldn't have called it "the most delicious of moral treats." The other scenario is that the action really is bad behavior, but I excuse myself by calling it "righteous indignation."


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