Some Don’t Have Good Hearts, They Have An Audience To Impress

THE HOT TAKE

Sisa Canca 

What’s your vice? Go on; no one is listening. Social media addiction? Gossiping? Gambling? Adultery? Boastfulness? Oh, that last one - I hope not. It’s insufferable and objectionable. As Instagram babes would say, “it’s icky”.   

As a nation, we have created a spirit of giving around the month of July in honour of one of our heroes, Nelson Mandela. And so many go out of their way to engage in generous activities to help create a more equitable and compassionate society that we can be proud of. Isn’t this just wonderful? Yes, but you know we don’t sing Kumbaya in this section, so please indulge me.

First, we need a definitional shift of what altruism or charity is. The buzzword that seems to follow acts of kindness is “selfless”. You’d hear things like “such and such are selfless acts”. Nothing, and I mean nothing, can be completely selfless because human action (I’ll stick to humans, screw cats, we don’t like them) is motivated by something, always! Whether it’s passion, discomfort, love, hate, fear….you get the picture. That “reason” that makes you do the thing is your motivation, and you cannot take the person out of the equation because, without the person and their conviction, there is no act of kindness. So, it’s not selfless. People who do wonderful things for others without expecting anything in return, own it. You did that. Yes, you.  

Some people cannot live with the image of somebody suffering without them doing something to make the situation less severe. They may not be expecting anything, but that psychological burden they are trying to avoid is the driving force. There is something in it for them. And I’m not complaining. It’s great sharing this planet with people who have compassion. However, some reasons for doing charity are better than others and virtue signalling is the worst of them all. 

Virtue signalling is doing something “cool” so that you can show your fake online friends, that crush of yours that doesn’t even know you exist, and the whole world, that you are a good person. What you’re doing is moral grandstanding, and it’s the opposite of being virtuous, i.e. a good person.

Virtue is about humility and protecting the person you’re helping from shame and embarrassment. If done the wrong way or taken too far, good acts can become vices. Aristotle puts it this way: he says virtue is the mean between two extremes. On one end, you have indifference, in the middle, you have compassion, and on the other extreme end, you have boastfulness. Virtue is what you do out of the goodness of your heart, and virtue signalling is what you do for public praise. What separates the two is marketing, or should I say your camera.

“What if I want to inspire others to do the same?” The “influencer age” has gotten some folks to believe that people haven’t made up their minds on things and are just sitting there waiting for someone to stir them into action via a social media post. I’ve made up my mind about cats, and not even Lionel Messi can inspire me to get one.

Anyway, influencers and my dislike for cats are stories for another day. My parting shot is this: leave your camera in your purse or back pocket the next time you do good. It’s enough to have an outlet to give to, but making the world aware of it is egotistic and showing piety none of us believe you possess anyway.