I'd Settle For an Immoral Victory

What is a "moral victory"?  A moral victory is what we used to call a defeat before we became too politically correct to use such a pejorative term.  When a person squats wretchedly in the smoking wreckage of his hopes and dreams they attempt to rationalise, or at least ward off suicide, by claiming to have won a "moral victory".  Similarly when activists feel very strongly about some issue or other and they placard and sign petitions and come out onto the streets in defence of their cause and as a result absolutely nothing changes then they too frequently claim to have won a moral victory.  No matter that all they have done is convince some people who agreed with them anyway that they agree with them (who "they" and "them" are is largely irrelevant as they tend to be the same people).

What is interesting is the position occupied by the moral victory in the victory pecking order.  That order goes something like this;

Crushing Victory
Victory
Minor Victory
Partial Victory
Moral Victory
Hitler

This gives us a pretty good idea of where the "moral" aspect sits in our appreciation of victories.  Morality, apparently, is something that we only consider once we've exhausted every other possibility for claiming victory.  Nobody ever trumpeted their moral victory if they had an actual victory to boast about.  The most they might claim is that their victory proved their morality.  You have to be pretty desperate to do it the other way round.  So, no surprises there then.

I wonder how much effort we would go to in order to achieve a moral victory?  By that I don't mean accepting it as a consolation prize when everything else goes to shit but actually straining every fibre and being prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice in the sure and certain knowledge that a moral victory is all that can be achieved.  I don't even mean sacrificing oneself for a cause to gain a moral victory as a stepping stone to full victory later.  I mean, the moral victory is all you get.  Ever!  I suspect there are very few people who would be prepared to accept a moral victory on those terms.  Those that would we cheerfully categorise as stubborn, irrational and possibly insane.  This seems a rather harsh judgement on people who are prepared to sacrifice their all in a hopeless cause simply because they know it's right.  It would be easier to feel sympathy for such people if they weren't so obviously stubborn, irrational and possibly insane.

Some people might think that the above is a somewhat harsh comment on people, moral victories and morality generally but I like to think that by writing it down I have won a moral victory.  Ah success!  Its so much easier when the bar is low.