Moral clarity

Moral clarity is long defined by usage as a capacity to make firm distinctions without hesitations or much thought between evil and good, and to take action based on those distinctions. It is a catchphrase associated with American political conservatives from the 1950s to around 2018. Like other catchphrases, it encapsulates meaning derived from its historical usage. Those that make a claim of moral clarity are suggesting that they are Good and that their enemies are Evil. It follows, historically, that all actions are justified in order to combat said Evil. (Alternately, "The ends justify the means.")

The phrase originally had anti-Communist connotations (like "fellow traveler.") It was popularized by William J. Bennett's "Why We Fight: Moral Clarity and the War on Terrorism". He was a Catholic neoconservative and Reagan's education secretary and the “czar” of George Bush’s war on drugs. Eventually, he used the catchphrase often enough to became synonymous with moral clarity. The phrase was first used in its current context during the 1980s, in reference to the politics of Ronald Reagan.

Quotes

• If you have moral clarity, you aren't in deep enough.
  • Mark Lloyd, Seattle resident quoted on NPR about helping the homeless by providing toilets.

• Until recently, “moral clarity” was more likely to signal combativeness toward the left, not from it: It served for decades as a badge of membership among conservative hawks and cultural crusaders. But in the Trump era, militant certainty takes precedence achross the political spectrum.
  • Frank Guan, Jan 2nd 2019, "What Could Be Wrong With a Little ‘Moral Clarity’?", New York Times Magazine

• What adrenaline does for the body, moral clarity does for semantics.
  • ibid