Hypocrites Unite!

Responding to a rich journo, George Monbiot examines the accusation that greens are hypocrites. This is the article; Monbiot.com � Hypocrites Unite! and I was intrigued by a summarising comment: "Sure we are hypocrites. Every one of us, almost by definition. Hypocrisy is the gap between your aspirations and your actions. Greens have high aspirations - they want to live more ethically – and they will always fall short. But the alternative to hypocrisy isn’t moral purity (no one manages that) but cynicism."
It shows a shift in meaning of the word between the way it gets used in the gospels (where it is people playing a part when their hearts aren't really in it) and in popular discourse (where it seems to be about not living up to ones own standards). I think that there is actually a significant moral distinction between the two kinds of meaning. In the biblical usage, it's about fulfilling a social expectation but trying to wriggle out of the spirit of the matter (justice, mercy etc). In the popular usage we are dealing quite often with people who find themselves embedded in life-circumstances which militate against their best aspirations. There is a difference between trying to change towards an ideal away from an admitted wrongness on the one hand and, on the other, avoiding change whilst giving the impression that one is 'signed up'. There is a difference between learning to be the change one is propounding, and making gestures for fashion or as a way of putting others down. When we talk about hypocrisy, it is important to be wary about just what we are talking about. Perhaps we should have a moratorium on the use of the word hypocrite and find other words to describe what we mean.