Hottentot morality (double standards): concept, examples

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

The expression "Hottentonian morality" about the principle of double standards has long been rooted in psychology. This principle of thinking is present not only among your friends and relatives, but also in politics. What it is and how it works, you will learn from the text below.

Who are the Hottentots?

The Hottentots are a South African Khoi tribe. The number of this nationality is about fifty thousand people.

The African Hottentot tribe got its name from the Europeans, who were the first to explore their way of life. The pagans, during the performance of their rites, quite often cast a spell that Europeans heard as "Hottentot".

Everyday speech also resembled the sounds of monkeys, so the Europeans considered them wild, similar to ancient people. From the Dutch hottentot is translated as "stutterer". It was stuttering that gave the tribe its name.

Where did the expression "Hottentot ethics" come from?

Once a European missionary traveled to South Africa, where he studied the aborigines. In particular, he communicated with the Khoi tribe(Hottentots). To find out what kind of morality the locals live, what is good for them and what is bad, he asked one of them if he knows what is good and what is evil. The Hottentot replied that he knew what was good and what was bad, without any doubt. Evil, according to the Hottentot, is the case when your cattle and your wife are stolen from you, and good is when you steal someone else's cattle and wife.

The question of the veracity of this story is debatable. Some researchers noticed that Khoi are very kind people. For example, the Christian clergyman Guy Tashar noted the good nature of the Khoi and wrote that they are very fond of sharing.

In Russia, the expression "Hottentot morality" became popular after the article by S. Frank, addressed to Bolshevik immorality.

What is Hottentot ethics?

The essence of the psychology of such thinking is as follows. Everything that we do and that is done to us, everything that leads to our own happiness and benefit is good. And everything that brings pain and harm is evil. In this case, it is important to take into account only personal desires and aspirations. What is good, only the subject of the relationship knows.

If an action benefits us, then it is virtuous. Everything is considered kind and good, which gives us satisfaction and happiness. But if another performs similar actions with us, then it is perceived as evil.

An African native thinks that his evil towards another is good if it brings him joy. It is a completely different case when the same "good" is done by a Hottentot - he does not like it.

The definition of Hottentot morality boils downto the formula: "All means are good" if they are useful to me. The Hottentot ethic is otherwise known as double standards. For those who act according to this morality, there is a standard of action that applies only to him, while a different standard of behavior applies to others. However, double standards also work at higher social levels.

So, Hottentot ethics and double standards are essentially the same thing.

The morality of double standards

Double standards are approaches to characterizing the actions and rights of the general population, states, peoples. Officially, these approaches are not recognized by anyone, but their existence is ubiquitous.

Following the logic of double standards, you can evaluate the same action, applying different interpretations of laws, principles, rules, and get several justified decisions (most often these are two opposite decisions).

In simple words, double standards are a biased attitude towards any events and their unfair assessment. These events should be evaluated by the same subjects. This is a discriminatory approach, deliberately portraying events in a negative light for one entity and a positive light for another.

Double standards can be found in politics, journalism, economics and other humanities.

Double standards in international politics

Most often double standards are used in international relations. In the 21st century, the method of Hottentot morality acts as a weapon in the fight against each other. overgrowthinternational conflicts, aggression, terror - all this leads to wars, but not physical ones, but informational ones.

The means of covert war is precisely double standards. The politicians of the warring states act covertly, undermining the authority and strength of each other. In international relations, the subject is a state or a union of states that promotes a double standard in the international arena in relation to the object, that is, another state.

At the international level, the ethic of double standards is presented to everyone as if it protects democratic ideals and fights imperfections in other states and countries, thereby distracting from similar problems in a state using a double standard. Accusing other countries of non-observance of universal rights and freedoms, such countries are most often guided only by their own personal benefits.

A huge role in supporting such a policy is played by the media, which covers this or that event, according to the required standard. This applies even to such a serious issue as terrorism. If necessary, terrorism can act as a struggle for justice and freedom, which is completely unacceptable.

Terminology of double standards

How do double standards manifest themselves? The most common way of working is to use different words in relation to the same problem, object or action. At the same time, the terms become emotionally colored.

For example, the concept of "war" among some and otherscan be interpreted as "fight for peace". For us, scouts are the heroes of the country, and for others, they are spies.

Any words, sentences, expressions, events are subject to double standards. Absolutely everything can be turned in a favorable way for one country to the detriment of another.

Policy of double standards

If we characterize the actions of the subject depending on who this subject is for us, then we will pursue a policy of double standards. Our friends will receive a more pleasant evaluation than strangers. This principle implies a stricter attitude towards one of the groups of people.

The policy of double standards in international relations is to blame the violation of universal principles, rights and freedoms by any state. At the same time, the prosecutor himself violates the same principles in the framework of his international and domestic activities.

This approach is not new, it has existed for many tens or even hundreds of years, the system of double standards is actively used by politicians, leaders, ordinary people.

Examples of double ethics in politics

Below are examples of double standards in international relations.

1. The pro-Western orientation of presidential candidates justifies a large percentage of those who voted. For example, M. Saakashvili, as a pro-Western candidate, wins the presidential elections in Georgia with a large percentage. In this case, one speaks of the victory of democracy. A significant percentage advantage and the victory of V. Putin from the Western point of view are rigged andanti-democratic.
2. The referendum is welcomed in one country and opposed in another. For example, the West agreed with the referendum on the secession of Serbia and Montenegro, but they did not agree with the referenda in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
3. Preferential prices for resources to brother countries. For example, during the collapse of the USSR, everyone was against Russia supplying its resources to post-Soviet countries at preferential rates. But when, after the Orange Revolution, Russia began to supply its resources to Ukraine at prices similar to those on the world market, it was called blackmail and undermining the economy.

There are many examples of double standards in world politics. Almost every event that takes place is a double standard.

Double standards at work

The policy of double standards is relevant not only in international politics. Its obvious manifestation is the dual sexual policy towards women and men.

A clear example of double standards is the recruitment system. There is no evidence in any developed country law that men have priority in employment over women.

However, behind the scenes, you will be convinced that the employer will be more willing to hire a man, even if both candidates are of the same age, have the same education and work experience.

The same applies to wages. The earnings of a man in the same enterprise may differ from that of a woman due to the more efficient work of men thanwomen, due to, for example, physical skills, etc.

Gender policy of double standards

The reproductive role of women plays a special role in this matter. Many employers refuse to hire women because she can go on maternity leave, on sick leave because of children, and so on. Such an employee is given less priority just because she is a woman.

The dual principle in relation to women and men exists not only in relation to work. Modern society is overwhelmed by gender stereotypes, when the same fact of a man's infidelity is perceived by many as a normal act. Men themselves tend to consider their unintentional infidelity commonplace, while a woman's infidelity is perceived as something immoral and is condemned in every possible way by male cheaters.

These facts are confirmed by polls. One in four men consider cheating on their wife abnormal. Four out of four consider cheating on a woman to be immoral.

This vivid example is not the only one. The policy of double standards towards women is quite widespread.

Double standards in personal relationships

Everyone's life is filled with double standards. And this is not only politics, media, art or science, it is also personal relationships between people.

From the point of view of psychology, double standards are not something abnormal and incomprehensible. They are natural for any person who is much more favorable to himself than to others.

It is easier to understand yourself. Even when we do something wrong, we can justify ourselves, because we know exactly why we did this or that action. But in relation to another person, we behave differently - we are more strict with his actions, because we do not know and do not want to know what prompted him to commit this or that act.

It's easier to find the mote in someone else's eye than to see the beam in your own. All this is due to the fact that a person puts himself above others and believes that he has the right to a better life, while others do not. At its most advanced, this develops into a narcissistic mental personality disorder.

Thus, Hottentot morality, or double standards, is literally inscribed in our daily personal life, in our relationships with each other. Mass media - newspapers, the Internet, TV - everything is replete with obsessive stereotypes of thinking. The actions of politicians in the modern world are not without double standards. The international information war widely uses the method of double standards. States vied with each other to drag the blanket of their justice on themselves, constantly blaming others for what they themselves are wrong.