"Now, this led to a good deal of general frustration, for people are 
naturally censorious and love nothing better than to criticise others' 
shortcomings. And so it was that they seized on hypocrisy and elevated it from 
a ubiquitous peccadillo into the monarch of all vices. For, you see, even if 
there is no right and wrong, you can find grounds to criticise another person 
by contrasting what he has espoused with what he has actually done. In this 
case, you are not making any judgment whatsoever as to the correctness of his 
views or the morality of his behaviour—you are merely pointing out that 
he has said one thing and done another. Virtually all political discourse in 
the days of my youth was devoted to the ferreting out of hypocrisy.