Are You A Hypocrite?

by Lonnie Lee Best

The goal of this page is not only to inform you of whether you are a hypocrite or not; it is to inform you of the type of hypocrite you are or are not. Perhaps you are a hypocrite. If you are, I can show you how to deal with your hypocrisy. I will present the factors that cause honest people to be hypocritical at times. I will share with you in minutes, what took me hours of objective self-evaluation to understand. This understanding has given me peace of mind, and I hope it will for you too.

Maybe you are worse than a hypocrite is; I will give examples of non-hypocrites that have less integrity than certain types of hypocrites do. For these people, I will explain how their lack of integrity has given them a distorted perception of reality. Regardless, if you are searching for understanding about hypocrisy, you have come to the right place.

Before I can clearly communicate my ideas to you, we must go through the painstaking process of eliminating any ambiguity that could arise from the terminology that I will be using. I have even had to coin a couple of terms myself in order to convey my ideas precisely, and concisely. I have also provided a mathematical formula and a matrix to add additional aid in precisely communicating the relationship of the terms discussed. We will start with the word hypocrite. There are a couple of meanings for this word, and it is necessary to state which one we will be using in this article.

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WEBSTER'S NEW UNIVERSAL UNABRIDGED DICTIONARY
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hypocrite:

1. a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, esp. a person whose actions belie stated beliefs.
2. a person who feigns some desirable or publicly approved attitude, esp. one whose private life, opinions, or statements belie his or her public statements.

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For this article we must go deeper than the above definitions in order to see internal hypocrisy. The above definitions do not clearly acknowledge the hypocrisy that often comes without public declaration, and is within the self. Therefore, we will define a hypocrite in the following way:

The degree of hypocrisy one possesses is equal to the absolute value of the difference between their beliefs and actions. Of course, it is not possible to actually measure these variables, but this formula does represent the relationship of these variables.

It is my theory that humans have a natural tendency to keep their hypocrisy at zero. Therefore, they have a desire to keep their beliefs and actions equal.

If Beliefs = Actions, then Hypocrisy = Zero
Or
If (Beliefs = X) and also (Actions = X), then Beliefs - Actions = 0 Hypocrisy

Furthermore, I believe that when hypocrisy equals anything other than zero, an anxiety will exist inside the individual. These imbalances can linger for years in honest objective people and only seconds for bias rationalizers. Why is this? It is due to one's honesty and objectivity when evaluating their initial internal feeling following a hypocritical imbalance. Everyone wants their hypocrisy to equal zero. Some do it by changing their beliefs so that they are equal to their actions. However, I say you should change your actions so that they equal your beliefs. Beliefs should be arrived at objectively, and should be a relatively independent variable.

Types of Non-Hypocrites

From my observation I have classified non-hypocrites into two categories:

Tautological Rationalizers are not hypocrites because their beliefs and perceptions of reality conform to support their own desires and imperfections. They can not be hypocrites because their beliefs and perceptions of reality are rationalizations for their actions and are without objectivity. When a state of hypocrisy arises, tautological rationalizers conform their beliefs around their actions to eliminate contradiction, rather than conforming their actions around their beliefs.

Devoted Believers' actions never contradict their beliefs. They are completely devoted to what they believe. Their beliefs and perceptions of reality are not rationalizations for their own actions. Their beliefs and perceptions of reality are the result of either objective logic, blind faith or a combination of the two. Regardless of the source of their beliefs, their beliefs and actions are without contradiction.

Types of Hypocrites

I am going to break hypocrites down into two levels, External and Internal. Within these levels I will classify 4 types of hypocrites based on the consistency between their stated and internal beliefs:

Honest External hypocrites: Their stated beliefs contradict their actions. However, their stated beliefs are consistent with their actual internal beliefs. Therefore they are also honest internal hypocrites. They have strong convictions but do not always follow through. Causes for this type of hypocrisy will be discussed later.

Dishonest External hypocrites: Their stated beliefs contradict their actions and their stated beliefs are not consistent with their actual beliefs. They often have weak convictions, and it is possible for them to be non-hypocritical on an internal level.

Honest internal hypocrites: Their internal beliefs contradict their actions. Their internal beliefs remain constant despite their contradicting actions. They are honest with themselves, and strive not to conform their beliefs around their own desires, actions, or imperfections.

Dishonest internal hypocrites: stated beliefs are consistent with actions but actual internal beliefs are not. They are often people pleasers with weak convictions.

Now that we have covered the terminology I will be using, I now pose a very interesting question.

What causes one to be an honest hypocrite?

So far, I have narrowed it down to three general factors:

1. Uncertainty of Beliefs: If you are not 100% certain in what you believe, then your actions are not likely to be consistent with your beliefs 100% of the time. A conservative interpreter of reality is seldom 100% certain about anything. This uncertainty can cause one to be hypocritical at times.
2. Carnal Desires: These are inherent human desires that often cause one to act on what the flesh desires, rather than what one believes to be the right action.
3. The difficulty level of the belief system: If one's belief standards of right and wrong are higher than what is humanly possible, then their actions are obviously not going to be consistent with their beliefs.

Now that we know the major factors that contribute to hypocrisy, what should we do? Should we create a belief system that is not too difficult, so our actions will always be consistent with our beliefs? Should we create a belief system that takes into account carnal desire, so that we have no hypocrisy? I think not. That sounds like something a Tautological Rationalizer would do. One's priority should be on Truth.

How should one go about obtaining a belief system?

One should do their best to objectively perceive Reality for what it is.
One should do their best to objectively perceive Truth for what it is.
One should do their best to objectively perceive Morality for what it is.

Once you obtain a belief system in this manner, your perception of reality will be as close to actual reality as you can make it. If your beliefs are humanly impossible after this evaluation, then you will have to settle for being an honest hypocrite!

Now don't get me wrong, you should do everything humanly possible to keep the hypocrisy to a bare minimum. Conform your actions to your beliefs the best you can, but never conform you beliefs to justify your actions, unless you have objectively found flaws in your beliefs.

I leave you with the following:

It is best not to be hypocritical, but I would rather be an honest hypocrite than a person who tries to make truth conform around his or her own desires and imperfections. In other words, I would rather be an honest hypocrite than lie about my imperfections. That is the Hard Core Truth.

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