Every virtue- diligence, honesty, fairness, integrity- has its antonym representing the opposite pole. Diligence has sloth , honesty has dishonesty, fairness has unfairness, integrity has lack of integrity and good has evil.
A person can be fair or unfair. They may be scrupulously honest or grossly dishonest. They may be diligent or slothful. They might be benevolent or malevolent. Either end of the spectrum tells you where you are with them. You’ll know how to deal with them. If they are honest you can trust them; if they are not you are free to protect yourself from them. There is still an integrity about them. They are what they are and they stand beside it without trying to hide their true selves.
You will, however, be up the creek without a paddle when you are dealing with someone who counterfeits their virtue. Counterfeit, the ultimate form of hypocrisy.
When they counterfeit virtue, they will be dishonest but will pretend to be honest and upright. You will naturally trust them. You’ll notice the knife in the back much later. They will have slipped it in when they put their arms around you for a hug. You’ll die without knowing what killed you.
They may be unfair but present themselves to you as conscientiously fair. They will use endless words to create an illusion for you. The illusion will look real, like a stage prop expertly executed. There will be paint and camouflage. There will be thin sticks holding up figures of seemingly invincible heroes. Your sense will be further deluded because you will see the props fleetingly from a distance. The garish floodlights will distort the contours even more. There will be no substance behind the things you will see. None at all.
Why do they do it? Is it to gain something from you… rob you of your wealth? Sometimes, but not always.
Most of the times they counterfeit virtue because they want the respect the world grants only to a virtuous person. They want to be lauded for the things they did not do. They want to rub shoulders with the giants of spirit whose stature they cannot match. They have no other way of being included in that exclusive club. Virtue is the price of entry there and they are bankrupt. So they pretend.
Why don’t they genuinely become virtuous if they covet the adulation so much? Oh! But you see, it is such a strain to keep the spine straight all the time! The effort would be a 24x7x365 thing- and that’s too much. Never a day, never a moment off. They would have to be virtuous even when they were alone. It will be like wearing tight boots all the time. They don’t want that kind of strain!
They want to be able to dress up in their finery when they meet you. Once they’ve knocked your eyes out and had your admiration poured respectfully at their feet, they want to come home and take those tight clothes and boots off. Their flesh which had been squeezed into apparel too small for it, would need to be let loose. They will get into their roomy, faded tee and loll about. They can let their stomach protrude and their spine curve. They can relax and be their real selves.
When they have company, or they are going out, they’ll wear their tight clothes again. You see? Easy and so very convenient!
Remember the Big Bad Wolf? Beware!
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Image from the Internet.
Ah! To an extent all of us do counterfeit a bit – and, sometimes, a lifetime of counterfeiting turns it into reality 🙂 But, yes, the difficulty about counterfeiters is that at the moment you try to lean on them as a pillar of support they tend to snap like twigs.
Btw, Dagny, 24×7 constitutes a week anyway 🙂 So it is probably 24x7x52 is you meant to refer to a year. Of course, you could have referred to roughly 7 years 🙂 (One of the things that gets me disliked – this venting of logic whether or not appropriate 🙂 )
If you thought you’ll succeed in making me dislike you- wrongly timed logic or not- I’m sorry to burst you bubble. I have no taste at all for sugar coated words. I bit of contrariness is more my taste.
I was trying to refer to a year, but I refuse to change it. So there! 😀
Thank you for the visit. 😀
Jealousy.
Sometimes it’s pure jealousy that prompts such a behaviour. For some, they might perhaps take the effort to don the garb of virtue 24x7x365, if only, IF they were aware of the possibility that perhaps it were possible for themselves to slip in those roles, even if just to put a temporary show. Rather they are too focused on destroying the target and the victim of their jealousy.
And the knife is put in the back all the while holding the hug, camouflaged as deep caresses. When the hold is released, you don’t ‘start’ bleeding, for by then the blood letting has been complete. Neatly. To perfection.
Isn’t it amazing how much personal experience we’ve been (unwillingly) given of counterfeit people? I think its enough to last many lifetimes. But He has his own infernal agenda, of course. Dammit.
Hugs…
I think fear is the driver in all of this. Fear of rejection, fear of being ordinary. Such a stong motivator. You have described the concept in such a meaningful way.
Ah fear! And guilt! The hateful twins.
Thank you for coming by.
hello,
its true that you should be aware of such counterfeit virtues, because a visible enemy is much better than a hidden one. The trouble is how do we sort the evil from good, considering the fact that everyone is becoming an awesome actor when it comes to hypocrisy and acting innocents??
I would refer you to a book called Speed of Trust written by Stephen M R Covey.
In this book, Stephen identifies 13 behaviors which destroy trust. In it, he also covers counterfeit behaviors to watch out for. You can also find a pdf online which contains a summary of this work identifying counterfeit behaviors here: http://www.coveylink.com/documents/13%20Behaviors%20Handout%20%28wtihout%20contact%29.pdf. If you are not able to download it, please let me know, I’ll mail it to you.
Glad to see you on these pages…
Dagny
The world around is mostly like this. People don’t let their true selves out. The shine in their eyes betrays the act but most likely you are going to miss it as they are also masters of the art to keep you busy with yourself.
The problem is now days counterfeiting has become a norm rather than exception and a simple human being who does not act is considered below the marking line. What a joke life plays with us. You do the exact opposite of what is required to be done and you are considered good
.
Jeevan, why have we accepted this upside down world? Why have we let this corruption into our soul? What can be worth this?