Theodore Dalrymple at the City Journal considers the differences between the humbug of cant and hypocrisy, which at least has the saving grace of being the tribute vice pays to virtue, and finds the dominance of cant today is illiberal, anti-intellectual and authoritarian:
Leaders in cant are not inquirers after truth but seekers of power, if only the power to destroy, which is often a delight in itself. Cant is the weapon of the ambitious mediocrity, a class of person that has become much more numerous with the extension, but also dilution, of tertiary education. Such people believe that social prominence is their due.
Photo credit: levi-clancy, unsplash