What is Moralism?

Moralism is the use of the language of morality to immoral ends.

Moralism is to confine the requirement of moral behavior to only one of the sides, exempting the other.

Moralism is to require justification before one can defend oneself, and therefore to condemn any pre-emptive action outright, no matter even the explicitly stated intentions of the other side. It means, for example, editing a scene from Star Wars: A New Hope to make Greedo shoot at Han Solo first, in order to give Han the “moral right” to shoot back, even though it is quite clear Greedo is a hired hand for his crime lord, and that the chance of him missing Han from such a distance is as great as that of a seasoned gunman missing an elephant in an alley from a range of one meter.

Han Shot First—because he knew he’d be dead if he let Greedo do it instead.

Moralism is to regard religion as the cause of all wars, yet to use religious language (such as, “America’s sins”) to condemn the defensive actions of democratic, non-theocratic, states; all while exempting true theocratic movements, foremostly Islam, from such criticism.

Moralism is to declare oneself to be against racism, while diluting the term so as to become meaningless (or: please tell me what race are Muslims again?), so that true cases of racism, such as the massacre of blacks by Arabs in Darfur, are blithely brushed under the carpet. Moralism also means to confine anti-racism to a particular race and to exempt another.

Moralism is to accord full rights to perpetrators, and none to their victims. It means school bullies are never even verbally chastised, lest that hurt their “delicate souls”, never mind the injuries those bullies inflict upon the bodies and souls of schoolkids in their vicinity. It means soldiers, guardsmen and land owners everywhere fear defending themselves because of legal prosecution, while the wrongdoers can count on the West’s same “legal system” to wash their crimes white.

Morality is to stand up for those who have been wronged. Moralism is to have declared, in advance, that the weak have been wronged, without probing into the matter. It is to set a different standard for the weak and the strong, no matter the facts. In more mundane areas, it means Apple and Microsoft can employ the same predatory corporate tactics, but, while Microsoft will be decried as an “Evil Empire”, Apple will stay the “hip underdog” and be defended for exercising its right to maximize profits. In less mundane areas, it means the United States of America can have 3,000 civilians murdered on its soil in an instant yet still be considered the oppressor of the world, and that act excused as “payback for America’s imperalistic past”. It means suicide bombers entering civilian areas in Israel in order to murder as many women and children as possible (G-d forbid) can be considered, “legitimate resistance” and “freedom fighters having only their bodies as means of countering imperialism”, while a misfired Israeli shell is seized as proof of Israel’s fundamental orientation toward ethnic cleansing.

Moralism is to cloak the breaking of every taboo, including bestiality and pedophilia, under the mantle of, “freedom of expression”, no matter the harm it could cause to society; all while adhering to a careful, respectful, considerate stance of “not rocking the boat” concerning the taboos of the “other”, such as criticism of the founder of a certain religion.

Moralism is to decry the loss of every life, except those of American “mercenaries” in Iraq. It is to say, vehemently, that all people are equal, and no murder is justified, but then, in the next breath, to rejoice, to gloat, over the murder of those “war profiteers”, for it is, of course, justified.

Moralism is to decry anti-terrorism measures as being an American president’s bid to do away with democracy, while turning a blind eye toward a Venezuelan president having done exactly that, with no terrorism-related issue ever raised as justification.

Moralism is to display such a compassionate heart toward those detained in the five-star American prison of Guantánamo, while revealing its stony side regarding the Cuban prisons on that same state.

To use linguistic terminology from one of the greatest proponents of moralism today: the surface structure of morality more often than not reveals, upon investigation, the deep structure of moralism. Let us not be fooled.