Growing up in Taiwan, I heard some "Chinese Culture Supremacist" jeering that in American culture, calling someone a "liar" is a serious offence because "Americans lie all the time, so they are ultra-sensitive to being called that name."
That's a silly allegation, of course. After living among them for well over 30 years, I find Americans to be more honest and straight-talking than most other peoples in the world I know, if anything.
What I am surprised though--at least initially--is the term "hypocrite" so often used here.
Politicians are often called hypocrites, for pretending to care for issues or people when all they do is their political future or how many votes they are getting in the next election.
Businesses are often called hypocrites because their institutional goals of obtaining maximum profits are often in conflict with the benevolent image they try to maintain in the public.
And of course when celebrity-like church leaders are found involved in sex or monetary scandals they are pinned as the most despicable ones who practice exactly what they preach others not to do.
Maybe Americans are just too honest a people to stand any phony characters or manipulative behavior flitting right in front of their societal eyes. (But then we have the Kardashians... well, that's another story).
That same honesty may also be called naivete or simple-mindedness that causes them to try to provide simple solutions to complicated issues that often times get them involved with troubles in other parts of the world where they are in turn called hypocrites who mess up other people's affairs when they can not take care of their own well in the first place.
It's much easier to subscribe to a lofty idea in its abstract form than when it's broken down into nitty-gritty parts whose implementation may interfere with my personal interests. NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) mentality is one example. Another, more amusing one is like this: When asked by surveyors what they think about illegal immigration, most Americans say it should be banned, no doubt. But then the surveyor asks: "If we do evict all and allow no more illegal immigrants, your yard maintenance cost will increase, your restaurant bills will go up... What's your thought on that?"... Moments of silence... then many would say: "By how much will my bills rise up?"
When I was a boy, I was puzzled by all those funny tales of men so fearful of their wives... What the heck are they so fearful about? Then I grew up and knew, it's probably because men are usually the great pretenders, grand speech makers, abstract idea promoters, while their wives are the nitty-gritty doers, who know all the shallow hollow behind their billow, so they have to kowtow.
I think we are all hypocrites to some extent. One reason for that is we all aspire to be someone or something better than who we are at certain stages of our life. So to the old man who gives the youngsters the wrong mentoring advice of "Do as I say, not as I do" I'll give him credit for wanting his youngsters to model after something he knows he himself hasn't set a good example for. Similarly, to those who call all the people sitting in the church "just a bunch of hypocrites" I'll say yes some may well be, but many are there because they know they have been falling short of the mark but are continually trying nonetheless.
You probably know the word "hypocrite" came from Greek/Latin origin meaning "a person who acts". And as they say, the world is a stage, we all act a part in it. We play the roles we either are born with or seek to be, or both, wearing different hats at different times or at the same time, all the time. Each role has its intrinsic values and expected norms. Play it well, and you get self-satisfaction and the society functions hunky-dory. Nothing wrong with that.
Except we all have something else that goes beyond this acting, that common being some call "true self" or divine presence, that we like to unveil from behind our masks and hope to meet with others who find it too, from time to time, as often as possible.
Take it easy, fellas!
