Flaunting supposed moral superiority is an ancient phenomenon. The scriptures speak of Christ’s criticism of the Pharisees who would routinely pray in the streets to show their virtue to the public.
The act of praying in the street is strikingly similar to the act of posting a post supporting a righteous cause and acting in NO way whatsoever. This type of behaviour ultimately results in moral destruction. Social media has resulted in an explosion of virtue signalling in our world. The ability for messages to spread quickly without check nor balance is extremely dangerous. It has created an echo chamber of false virtue that envelopes the developing mind and perverts the integrity of our society. The expansion of social media has resulted in a new generation of digital Pharisees and false prophets praying in the streets. This false prophecy and social pandering is epitomized by posts such as:
An observation of statistics concerning general progress on some of the most prominent issues in our society (climate change, mental health, war, etc.) allows you to draw a very simple conclusion:
There is a disconnect between the amount of people appearing to care about issues through social media expression, and the amount of people ACTUALLY taking action.
This means there is another motivation for issue focused social media posts other than genuinely caring about the issue. I have identified why people are demonstrating hollow care. The reason is simple… To portray moral superiority.
Moral Superiority:
The majority of people posting these very high minded posts are not actually inciting any real change. This is backed by statistics on change vs awareness as mentioned above. I have always viewed awareness as one of the lower means of creating change. In my humble opinion social media awareness is one of the least efficient means of enacting change. Those who make these posts are largely focused on the moral perception of themselves as being a prometheus that recognizes this issue within their peer group. This is evidenced by looking at what gets reposted. Many of the messages that get reposted are oversimplified. They would be considered stupid to any reputable intellectual. Anyone legitimately concerned about solving said issue would not post these things as they are not representing the issue accurately. The posts are simple because it doesn’t MATTER if the message is stupid or oversimplified because the one posting the message has no intention to cause any change but rather to increase their social value, feel good, and exert moral superiority. Similarly, it doesn’t matter if your prayer will be well received by God if you were not praying to God in the first place but rather making a demonstration to your peers of your virtue and concealing your wickedness. To refer back to the example of Christ. We know that Christ was not one to pray in public. He was one to wash the feet of his disciples and heal the sick. He was one to focus his relationship with God inward. His actions show that the best way to develop true virtue is by acts of value and meaning not by publicly stunting to show virtue. Today’s people should follow a similar model. They should recognize that righteousness is not a means to social approval but a means in itself. It has intrinsic meaning.
Showing ones support for a movement and spreading ideas has become likened to actually solving issues and has been given a false moral pretense which many exploit. If this is to continue we will flounder on actually solving the problems in our society. Because, in our modern age those who pray in the streets are bound to get run over sooner or later.
