Virtue as a Vehicle to Support Questionable Actions  - Jonathan Campbell

 

The Chartist movement in late 1830’s London sought to remove the land ownership barrier to political participation, and was in most ways a class movement, with the proletariat of London banding together and rejecting the image of the bourgeoisie, and with it some of the more liberal social actions of the land owning class. The chartists founder formalized this in their 1838 Address and Rules, meant to document the growing branches of the movements in different locations, stating that groups were meant to recruit those with “the attributes of men; and little worth of the name are those who have no aspirations beyond mere sensual enjoyments”, including alcohol.

However, according to Tom Scriven, one of their founding members, Henry Vincent, seemingly quite enjoyed sensual enjoyment as he travelled on lecture tours on the ideals of Chartists, candidly (and quite proudly) often writing his brother about his recent trysts, even lamenting the absence of women during a short prison stint in 1837 (Scriven 160).

This dichotomy is all to present in current political movements today: a group holds virtue as central its cause in order to both attract new members and legitimize themselves on the outside, while internally practicing something far different. ISIS, or Daesh, holds the teaching of Islam as its moral compass, while at the same time perpetrating systematic rape against their prisoners, going so far as to defend it with religion:

“After capture, the Yazidi women and children were then divided according to the Shariah amongst the fighters of the Islamic State who participated in the Sinjar operations, after one fifth of the slaves were transferred to the Islamic State’s authority to be divided” (as spoils). (Callimachi)

 

Groups must legitimize themselves, and framing the groups rhetoric around virtue, a leader is able to place his actions, and by extension other members, above reproach.

 

SCRIVEN, TOM. "Humour, Satire, And Sexuality In The Culture Of Early Chartism." Historical Journal 57.1 (2014): 157-178. Academic Search Complete. Web.

Callimachi, Rukmini. "ISIS Enshrines A Theology Of Rape". Nytimes.com. N.p., 2015. Web.