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Spring Reading: "Perlmann's Silence" and Self-Justification
Tuesday, April 15th, 2014
Robert Wechsler
Self-justification is an important element in ethical misconduct,
cover-ups, and officials' public denials and explanations of conduct. It aids and abets our blind spots. It is a
sign of weakness, anxiety, and fear more than of poor character
Self-justification is something each of us engages in. Sometimes we fight it, sometimes we effectively compromise with it, and sometimes we give in to it. The one thing most of us rarely do is think or talk openly about it.
Swiss writer Pascal Mercier's novel Perlmann's Silence, translated from the German by Shaun Whiteside (Atlantic, 2005, 2011), has some incredible passages about the self-justification process. They make great food for thought.
Remembering as Self-Justification: "Narrative memory [is] also a justification, a piece of inventive apologia." (p. 99) and "Narrative memory was unscrupulous when it came to defending the moral integrity of the past self." (156)
The Usefulness of Clichés: "The parroted sentences {in government ethics, these include "I am a person of integrity" or "I cannot be bought"} ... which, in their treacherous inconspicuousness, [keep] experiences from being made, and, by being experienced, from changing anything." (176)
A 3D-printer metaphor of self-justification: "It was a matter of laying one thin layer of self-persuasion on the other until a new, solid conviction came about, whose blind firmness he no longer needed to worry about on a daily basis." (308)
"He wanted to look forward to the point in the future when the world, as far as his integrity was concerned, would be exactly as it had been before his deception." (283)
"All that remained was the dull, rather abstract conviction that there was no going back." (306)
Clinging to one's self-exculpation: "He felt that this was a piece of sophistry, an outrageous false conclusion, but he didn't have the will to disentangle it, and clung to the truth that those two sentences bore on their surface." (312)
Public vs. private: "Why, then, should it not be possible to withdraw entirely from his professional role, his public identity, into his private, authentic person, the identity that was the only thing that counted?" (413)
"From the very outset, his anxiety had reduced the others to one-dimensional, schematic figures. They were adversaries first and foremost." (465)
"He constantly had to fight against his tendency to confess the truth, and only defeated it when he gave it free reign and then threw the text away with revulsion." (614)
This is not a novel I recommend for everyone. It is long and brutal. It walks the reader through an emotional hell. But it has some great virtues. The author's musing about self-justification is just one of its virtues.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
---
Self-justification is something each of us engages in. Sometimes we fight it, sometimes we effectively compromise with it, and sometimes we give in to it. The one thing most of us rarely do is think or talk openly about it.
Swiss writer Pascal Mercier's novel Perlmann's Silence, translated from the German by Shaun Whiteside (Atlantic, 2005, 2011), has some incredible passages about the self-justification process. They make great food for thought.
Remembering as Self-Justification: "Narrative memory [is] also a justification, a piece of inventive apologia." (p. 99) and "Narrative memory was unscrupulous when it came to defending the moral integrity of the past self." (156)
The Usefulness of Clichés: "The parroted sentences {in government ethics, these include "I am a person of integrity" or "I cannot be bought"} ... which, in their treacherous inconspicuousness, [keep] experiences from being made, and, by being experienced, from changing anything." (176)
A 3D-printer metaphor of self-justification: "It was a matter of laying one thin layer of self-persuasion on the other until a new, solid conviction came about, whose blind firmness he no longer needed to worry about on a daily basis." (308)
"He wanted to look forward to the point in the future when the world, as far as his integrity was concerned, would be exactly as it had been before his deception." (283)
"All that remained was the dull, rather abstract conviction that there was no going back." (306)
Clinging to one's self-exculpation: "He felt that this was a piece of sophistry, an outrageous false conclusion, but he didn't have the will to disentangle it, and clung to the truth that those two sentences bore on their surface." (312)
Public vs. private: "Why, then, should it not be possible to withdraw entirely from his professional role, his public identity, into his private, authentic person, the identity that was the only thing that counted?" (413)
"From the very outset, his anxiety had reduced the others to one-dimensional, schematic figures. They were adversaries first and foremost." (465)
"He constantly had to fight against his tendency to confess the truth, and only defeated it when he gave it free reign and then threw the text away with revulsion." (614)
This is not a novel I recommend for everyone. It is long and brutal. It walks the reader through an emotional hell. But it has some great virtues. The author's musing about self-justification is just one of its virtues.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
---
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