On Virtue

Yea, though I walk through the valley of virtue signalers, I will fear no attacks from those who would wantonly accuse me with such slander.

With apologies to Psalm 23:4, yea, I have been accused of virtue signaling.  And we’ll get to that in a minute.  But first, I thought I’d use this as an occasion to remind myself (and perhaps others of you as well) of what virtue truly means, and not the pejorative version being peddled by the “anti-woke” crowd, those who are so effective (dammit!) at slapping a negative tag on a word or phrase to shape an action or idea as being reprehensible.

On the one hand, Merriam-Webster defines virtue as “morally good behavior.”  So, to be virtuous can mean someone who strives to make the right choices, practicing high moral standards with qualities such as honesty, kindness, courage, and integrity.

And on the other hand – let’s call it a “back hand” – an accepted definition of virtue signaling means to conspicuously display one's awareness of political issues, social and racial justice, etc., especially when these demonstrates lack effective action. 

So, in other words, peacocking feathered with hypocrisy.

Or in shorthand for that backhand, one might do something solely to gain social approval by appearing virtuous.

The Celestial Hierarchy

Okay, so we’ve got some working definitions.  Deeper in my exploration of virtue, I also learned about the Celestial Hierarchy (new to me), which is a ranking of angels whereby the Virtues occupy the second order of the Second Sphere – a bit further away from God than the First  Sphere, but hey – still considered angels!

Here’s how The Virtues, also known as Strongholds, are described:

“They are often depicted as radiating light and energy, associated with acts of heroism and courage. Their name comes from the Latin “virtus,” meaning “strength” or “power.”

“The Virtues are responsible for maintaining the natural order of the universe and supervising the movements of celestial bodies. They are seen as the angels who provide courage and strength during times of struggle, bringing God’s grace to those demonstrating faith. They are also considered the creators of miracles on Earth.”*

Okay.  Courage and strength during times of struggle.  Sounds good (and relevant) to me.

Am I Virtue Signaling? And Is That A Bad Thing?

So, here’s where the – picture my wild windmilling of arms to get attention – virtual signaling comes in.  It came to light on LinkedIn when I posted an image of my Patagonia Stand Up Shorts with the message “Vote the Assholes Out” sewn into one of the tags.

The post received tons of engagement, at least by standards for my posts – north of 400 likes with numerous comments.  Among those comments were several that nagged at me, principally because they aimed their dart directly at my purpose of social and environmental change, with another poison-tipped arrow launched at Patagonia, for what they said were the company’s abuse of prudent labor practices by manufacturing in Sri Lanka, where labor abuses are prevalent.  You can see the post and comments here.

(When I contacted Patagonia about this, the company responded that its Stand Up Shorts are made in a Fair Trade Certified factory, further elaborating that it is doing work throughout its supply chain to bring its partner suppliers to pay living wages and has recently joined ACT, a collaboration by the garment, textile, and footwear industries to collaborate and drive sustainable wage growth in the supply chain. You can read Patagonia's take on this collaboration here.)

My intent in posting was simply to draw attention to a clever marketing move – there’s nothing like an Easter egg sewn into your shorts.  Now I can see how the haters arrive at their diagnosis – many people wear a brand as signaling an affinity to brand values regardless of whether said “wearer” ever acts upon these values or not. So, I guess the assumption commenters made regarding me assumes that anyone who wears Patagonia is virtue signaling.

Now, I’m sure Patagonia is accustomed to having a core group of haters.  Me, not so much.  So perhaps I need to simply harden my hide a bit. Note taken! 

Of course, maybe I should just sit back and realize that, however unintentionally, MY dart hit the bullseye of a hot and sensitive button for the anti-woke crowd.

As for my signaling aiming for “social approval” – okay, I’ll take that hit, but then isn’t that why we’re all on social media, for social approval of one form or another?

And if a “signal” can be defined as an electrical impulse or radio wave transmitted or received, then shouldn’t we all be creating positive waves whenever we can and transmitting them to spark virtuous models of behavior?  Shouldn’t we all be helping others by shining a light on these positive actions, virtue signaling more, and not less, so that we might share these stories of action as an inspiration to others?

If that’s the case, guilty as charged.

Godspeed, friends.

Russ

*Source: The Book of Threes