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When Virtue Signaling Replaces Character

It has never been easier to feel virtuous without making much of an effort.

Put pronouns in an email signature, repost the slogan of the day, or join the online denunciation of someone who used the wrong word. In many circles, such gestures are expected. A person can take part with little at stake and still come away feeling that he has done something morally worthwhile.

The trouble begins when support for fashionable causes is treated as proof of good character.

Traditionally, classical virtues have been concerned primarily with conduct. Courage requires action when there is something to lose. Temperance means controlling one’s appetites. Prudence calls for sound judgment, while justice requires fairness, including toward people one dislikes.

A person acquires these traits by practicing them and working on himself. He must make the right choices repeatedly, often when nobody else knew or cared.

At about the age of 14, George Washington copied into his schoolbook 110 maxims known as the “Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.” The exercise reflected an understanding that character had to be cultivated. Decades later, in an Aug. 28, 1788, letter to Alexander Hamilton, Washington described “the character of an honest man” as the most enviable of all titles.

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