Self-Righteous All

It feels increasingly difficult nowadays to avoid righteousness; or, worse, self-righteousness. We are constantly being told what to do by those who supposedly have seen the light.

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For example, I was recently scolded by a colleague for suggesting that my own employer should aim to hire the best people, regardless of their sex or race. I was struck by the confidence that this person felt in instructing me on what I should value; it felt highhanded and uninformed.

Of course, there is a difference between righteousness and self-righteousness (though the slippery slope between them is short and steep). The advantage of righteousness is that it is justified, as in the case of a zealot who opens people’s minds to the possibility that they are prejudiced. By contrast, lecturing a stranger on how to weigh the trade-off between merit and equity strikes me as self-righteous.

Why is there so much of this behaviour today? To address that question, we need to understand what makes people so sure of themselves. The answer may be a little surprising: Self-righteousness comes from judging the world by the perceived correctness of actions rather than by the quality of outcomes.

Consider tariffs. To evaluate the issue objectively, one must understand the causes of trade, trade imbalances, and their effects. In other words, one must frame the issue “consequentially.” Presumably, the goal of a tariff policy is to produce beneficial outcomes. But that can be accomplished only by understanding why people trade and how to create conditions for the kind of trade you want. You must think about how the world works and how to tweak it to produce the outcomes you desire.