Opinion
16th August 2026
When Virtue-signalling becomes a Vice
I don’t want to name names. Dragging up individual cases causes distress to those people and their friends and relatives and is not necessary to make a general point, so I will keep this general.
However, I think it is time to raise the point that signalling virtue by drawing attention to something one has done involving an individual exposes that individual to risk. When an organisation flags up that an appointee is the first, oldest, youngest, or latest member of some group or category to hold the post concerned or to win a competition or achieve or be granted some milestone, it exposes that person to increased and unnecessary scrutiny. With that comes the risk of making that person a target for intrusion or malice.
A genuinely enlightened or virtuous organisation would not need to draw such attention. It would consider the matter unexceptional and unworthy of specific attention. The right person won or was selected according to relevant criteria and that would be all that matters and no less than we would expect. Business as usual is not news.
How many of us can be sure we or those we admire do not have feet of clay? Claiming someone is exceptional is an invitation to others to test those feet and, if they fail, to bring that person crashing down with disastrous results. It should not be done, even when there is a strong temptation to signal virtue. If you need to signal virtue you have too little of it. Adequate virtue needs no attention as it will manifest itself over time. Signalling virtue demonstrates vice, and vices crush things, including people, when tightened.