The Flaws of Virtue

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The Flaws of Virtue

“Great Virtue Seems Flawed” is a quote from the Tao Te Ching Chapter 41. Lately I’ve been thinking about that between a mix of readings and watching today’s supposedly virtuous people. The former makes me think, the later makes me outraged THEN I think. I suppose it all goes to the same place – people with deep morals and principles, grounded ones, are NOT going to look perfect to people.

Because looking perfect is a great way to not actually focus on important issues and your own personal integrity.

Think of how much of “morality” we’re taught is just posturing. Say the right thing. Smile at the right time. Invoke some religious platitudes. I mean how many times do you see someone held up as a moral paragon who violates everything their religion and principles supposedly stand for?

In a media age it’s even worse. I’m often stunned – me, who’s had plenty of time to become cynical – how often supposed moralists are clearly not following what they say. They are lying to people’s faces, posing, posturing.

A person who has deep values, who has connected values, doesn’t place performative actions on a pedestal. They’re not here to sell you themselves, they’re not here to grift you. They have certain principles and act on them. Often that will conflict with the performative morality of others.

This also means that people who are interested in what is right and what values run deep is going to clash with the times. By definition someone who is contemplating what’s important is going to be at odds with flaws in society at the time. They will make waves, they will not be what we expect – and a smart society has “space” for wave makers (which lets you find out who has good ideas and who is just a jackass).

Finally, some ideas of what proper, moral behavior is really fall away when people take a look at deep issues and principles. Deep morality will seem flawed as people realize some things they were taught are, at best, useless, and worse harmful. Look at the history of people protesting injustice against people for skin color, sexual preference – at their time, they looked very flawed, but in retrospect we see their virtue (even if some want to deny it).

So yes, great virtue does seem flawed. It comes from a deeper source, from contemplation, from trying to get the big picture. We should always expect some moral friction in the world because we’re always re-evaluating things.

I would note, as a warning, that there is “being flawed” and “being performatively transgressive.” A person who’s deep morals come first and just happen to appear as flawed is one thing. Someone going around breaking things and putting on a show is clearly not coming from a deeper place.

And ironically, the performative faux moralist is probably performing “acceptable rebellion” so they’re conforming anyway . . .

-Xenofact

Look For The Avatars

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We’ve often heard the phrase “look for the helpers” from Fred Rogers. I’ve seen this simple bit of advice deconstructed, believe it or not, but instead of adding one, I’d like to add a recent, similar lesson. Look for the Avatars.

Recently I’d been contemplating the divine, as I’m prone to do. As stated previously, I believe there is something to the idea of gods, that there are great powers out there. We “connect” with these great powers and patterns with creative ideas – stories, rituals, and so forth. Art is kind of the bridge (which I need to write about more).

However, there are times my divine contemplations do feel rarefied. There’s those powerful experiences of the divine, those presences that make you realize something is there. At times I wish I had more of them, that personal experience, though I am rather abstract by nature.

A few days later, I was at an amazing exhibit about the amazing Amos Kennedy Junior, an engraver and artist. In his decades of work he’s spoken to issues of racsim, abuse, bigotry, and more with powerful and impactful text and designs. Maps with block text about the oppression of people. Pithy statements on simple posters. He’s a master of many things, but all of them get into your head.

There was something about his work that was deep and powerful. It wasn’t just art, or protest, or history. It was divine in its truth.

On my way back from the gallery, these words came to my lips: This man is an avatar of Thoth.

Thoth, god of writing and magic, of science and art. . The husband or father of Seshat, lady of libraries and archives (and thus I consider her goddess of bookstores). Thoth is the power of words, and Kennedy’s words and text had power.

That’s when I realized that there, in the museum, I had a religious experience. I got to experience the power of writing and words, artistically arranged, a kind of magic, spun by a master of writing and creativity. He embodied Thoth, the principles of Thoth, he had power.

I had a religious experience there, contemplating this engraver. Something powerful. Something unexpected. Something which taught me a valuable lesson.

Look for the Avatars.

If you want to see the divine in the world, look for embodiments of it. They’re all around you. They’re in art studios and making your coffee, composing music and making videos about food. They’re everywhere. There are people who embody the very thing you’re seeking if you give yourself space to see it.

We can argue what gods “really” are, we can argue minutae and we can try to grasp the ungraspable that-which-is. But the power of those things behind the world, the great principles, are there right now. Look for them in your fellow people.

-Xenofact

The Capitalist Messiah Machine

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I’ve heard many people say “Capitalism ends in fascism,” but let me put in my thought – Capitalism seems to create messiahs.  Inevitably.

Lately in 2025 it seems Capitalism is filled with messiahs.  It used to be you’d get a few here and there, but now we’re awash in them and their annoying products, videos, and podcasts.  People who will save us from ourselves, who will usher in the singularity, or take us intergalactic or whatever.  It seems late-stage Capitalism produces an embarrassment of messiahs, and all of them are embarrassing.

This got me thinking.  Because Capitalism in popular imagination is often portrayed as hard-edged, about bargains, and money, and economic growth and so on.  When it’s not, it usually involves drugs (usually cocaine) and sex (when on cocaine), and excess (thanks 80’s movies).  If there was philosophy it was pseudo-Nietzsche/Ayan Rand stuff at best.  If people were Capitalists out to reshape the world they were usually villains fighting James Bond or Superman.

I think these pop culture ideas may have shielded us from the messiah Machine that is Capitalism.

Capitalism allows people to accumulate power in the form of wealth, influence, and public regard.  Capitalism has no restraints, so some people are going to get a lot of wealth and power, which lets them do whatever they want.  Most of them use that to get more wealth and power, since they’re competing with each other and you don’t want anyone to get the drop on you.

Capitalists also don’t face a lot of repercussions as they have money, power, and the backing of our culture.  When’s the last time you’ve seen someone whos rich face repercussions for their actions, even when you hear of horrific accusations of scamming, child abuse, and worse?  Exactly.  It’s easy to get used to that, and start thinking of yourself as invulnerable – and even get used to it.

Lots of power.  No repercussions.  It becomes easy to think you’re special, maybe even a messiah.

But you’re also totally abstract from human experience as one of our hyper-capitalists.  You live in a soft world where cause and effect isn’t what it is for everyone else.  Your world is a world of numbers and marketing, and nothing else. You’re just a suit of flesh around a bank account and a stock portfolio.  How easy is it to spin some messiah story to give your life meaning?

It’s probably much easier when your life is devoid of cause and effect, of meaning, so you come up with a story to make yourself special and not just a money meat suit.

Some Capitalists may not fall into such traps, but messianism is also a useful shield.  People catch on that some idiot who got a huge inheritance is still just an idiot, but an idiot deciding how large chunks of the world run.  Claiming messianism is a great way to protect yourself from people who are starting to realize you didn’t earn anything and figure you shouldn’t have it.

You might even believe you’re a messiah after awhile.  And in the isolation.  And probably the drugs.


In retrospect, Capitalism seems to be a kind of messiah machine.  Sure it may have taken awhile to get to our current state of multiple messianic money morons, but boy have we done it in spades the last ten to twenty years.  We’ve also got a lot of would-be Capitalist Messiahs with their video channels and other grifts.

It’s probably both the concentration of money and power and the media.  We’ve got powerful people with influence over the media, a media filled with bootlickers, and the chance of parasocial relationships.  That’s been a powerful force letting people find someone to worship, inviting both the manipulative and the deluded to indulge.

Capitalism leads to fascism, sure.  But it also leads to messiahs and those are a pretty integral ingredient to fascism.

-Xenofact