Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk

NOTE: I wrote the following review for the Sept/Oct 2020 issue of Influence magazine. Influence is a Christian leadership magazine published by the Assemblies of God (USA). My take on Grandstanding thus includes a reflection on what ministers might learn from this book. The book itself, however, works from secular premises, and the authors evince no particular religious commitment one way or another. So, please don\’t mistake how I applied the book to Christian ministers for the aims its authors intended. ~GPW —– Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmkes Grandstanding is a work of philosophy informed by psychology. Its authors evince no religious commitments one way or another, and they work from secular premises. So, you might wonder why Im recommending their book in a magazine for Christian ministers. The answer is that Grandstanding trains a searchlight on the use and abuse of moral talk, in the words of its subtitle. Moral talk is an intrinsic part of spiritual leadership. Proclaiming the moral excellency of Jesus and calling believers to imitate His example are among a Christian ministers most basic duties (e.g., Philippians 2:5; 1 Peter 2:21; 1 John 2:6). But with this duty comes a temptation to abuse moral talk. For example, Jesus once told a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector who went to the temple to pray (Luke 18:914). The Pharisee prayed, God, I thank you that I am not like other people robbers, evildoers, adulterers or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get. The tax collector, on the other hand, prayed, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. According to Jesus, only the tax collector went home justified before God. Tosi and Warmke would describe the Pharisees prayer as an example of grandstanding, that is, the use of moral talk for self-promotion. Grandstanding consists of two elements: Recognition Desire and Grandstanding Expression. In other words, grandstanders want to impress others with their moral qualities, the authors write, and they try to satisfy that desire by saying something in public moral discourse. Grandstanding can take a number of forms. Tosi and Warmke identify five, which they term piling on, ramping up, trumping up, expressing strong emotions, and dismissiveness. The Pharisees prayer, for example, combines a strong emotion of disgust (toward lawbreakers and tax collectors) with an air of dismissiveness (as if the Pharisees righteousness were self-evident). All five forms of grandstanding are legion on social media, especially Twitter. Interestingly, write Tosi and Warmke, You dont have to know youre grandstanding in order to grandstand, nor do you have to say anything false. Perhaps, like the Pharisee, you really think youre that good and others that bad. And maybe the others actually are nasty pieces of work, while youre an upstanding citizen by comparison. Regardless of whether youre witting or wrong, however, youre still grandstanding. Jesus criticized the Pharisee for exalting himself, after all not for telling a lie. But if grandstanding can be unwitting and truthful, what exactly is the problem? As moral philosophers, Tosi and Warmke draw on the three main streams of ethical theory consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics to describe whats wrong with grandstanding. In a nutshell, they argue, grandstanding has social costs, it disrespects people, and it manifests a defect in moral character. The social costs of grandstanding include polarization, cynicism, and outrage exhaustion. Grandstanding disrespects people by using others to show how good the grandstander is, or by misleading others about how good the grandstander is. And it manifests a defect in moral character because to be virtuous, you must do the right thing for the right reasons. A grandstander, however, is selfishly (that is, wrongly) motivated. Tosi and Warmke conclude Grandstanding by suggesting several strategies, both personal and social, for reducing self-promoting moral talk. As the United States enters the home stretch of its presidential election season, these strategies are helpful, especially for spiritual leaders like you and me whose calling requires speaking prophetically that is, morally to the pressing issues of the day. But let us make sure we speak with clean hands and a pure heart. It is far less important to identify grandstanding in others, Tosi and Warmke write, than it is to know how to avoid it in ourselves. Or, as Jesus put it, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brothers eye (Matthew 7:5). Only by doing so will we avoid the Pharisees temptation to abuse moral talk for selfish ends.

Grandstanding has been with us since humankind started walking the earth. But, this is a particularly relevant topic for our highly polarized times. I agree with Anomalys review that the folk who should read this will not. While the authors have made a heroic attempt at describing grandstanding and explaining the negative consequences, it is still inadequate. First, it is highly simplistic. Grandstanding is a more complex phenomenon than the authors portray. Second, it is not as comprehensive as it should be. Third, their advice and solutions on how to protect oneself from the ill effects of grandstanding are at best spotty and not thorough. I hope others will pick up where these authors have left off. The book starts off with the simplistic and circular equation, Grandstanding = Recognition Desire + Grandstanding Expression. The authors focus on how the desire to be perceived as morally superior is the key motivation for grandstanding. I would suggest that there are other possible motives behind grandstanding the desire to destroy someones reputation (or get revenge), to persuade people of a policy position or to maintain a position of power. I wish these could be explored. Perhaps, the worst simplification is their assumption that there is only a single and absolute moral truth. In a pluralistic society such as ours, there are a wide variety of preferences and experiences. People have different tastes for food, liquor, music, literature, etc. It should be no surprise then that they would hold different feelings about morality. If true morality was as simple as the authors portray, there would be no need for moral discourse. However, responsible moral discourse uncovers the reasons that we have different values, and provides new insights on how to allow each citizen to pursue happiness when there are such varying views on morality. When it comes to explaining the immorality of grandstanding and its negative consequences, it is an understatement to say that this book is not comprehensive. Further, the possibility that some people might enjoy following grandstanders is not covered (especially the audiences for partisan TV news), and they may be even a greater threat than the grandstander. The authors likened grandstanding to lying. I agree with that. But, they do not cover all of the many bad consequences that could come from grandstanding. One of the worst outcomes that the authors do not cover is that grandstanding dehumanizes and demonizes opposing moral viewpoints to the point that innocent peoples physical and financial lives are destroyed. We have seen examples of this throughout history the holocaust, Stalins administered starvation of millions of Ukrainians and the Chinese Cultural Revolution. One might argue that the recently publicized firings of people who expressed an unpopular opinion is an additional example. I agree with the authors advice that it is unwise to call someone out for grandstanding because grandstanding cant be proved. I also agree that their needs to be an etiquette for moral discourse. However unlike the authors, I believe that discussions on morality need to start on the premise that different people have legitimately different viewpoints about morality, and it is wrong to demonize or destroy people with opposing viewpoints. Different people have different notions of justice, and like beauty, justice is in the eye of the beholder.

This book is exactly what is needed right now. Warmke and Tosi open up an important topic and do more than do it justice. Our online worlds are shaped by moral grandstanding and the authors expertly lay out every aspect (and hidden cost) of our current societal norm. Not only does the book grow ones appreciation for the topic, but it subtly challenges each person to become their own best self within this ecosystem. This is the book you should hope your friends read. Read this. Share this. Wed all be better for it.

If you\’re interested in this book, you\’re probably already convinced that there is such a thing as moral grandstanding, and that its prevalence in our culture is (at the very least) a troubling phenomenon. The value of this book is that it enhances our capacity to reflect upon grandstanding with greater clarity and precision at a time where this couldn\’t be more critical. Tosi and Warmke make a compelling case that, regardless of which ethical theory you embrace, grandstanding is often morally problematic: it has destructive consequences for our interpersonal and political discourse, fails to show respect for persons, and is often the expression of moral vice. So, if you want to have more than some inchoate sense that something is deeply off about the pervasiveness of grandstanding in our culture–if you want to be equipped to identify it and distinguish its varied and pernicious forms, understand and articulate exactly what\’s wrong with it–I highly recommend this book. And besides all of this, the book is an accessible, clever, amusing, and enjoyable read.

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