[BORROWED VIRTUE]

By Raoul Suarez

He has never paid for anything in full. Not in college. Not in life. Not even in the image he sells. From the very start, he learned how to take without shame. Event passes he didn’t earn. Lavish meals he couldn’t afford. Favors he pretended to deserve. He wore his need like a charm, and many mistook the manipulation for fellowship.

It eventually became an instinct. He learned that charm could open wallets, that pity could bend rules, and that people’s goodwill could be mined like gold. It was never about need. It was about nerve. What began as opportunism in youth hardened into a modus in adulthood. Free plane tickets became a given. Restaurant dinners were just there for the taking. Hotel accommodations were part of the equation. He moved through favors like a man entitled to them. Always at the expense or the courtesy of someone too polite, or maybe too deceived, to say no.

He is the kind of man who would offer his credit card to foot the bill just to look decent, but he does so knowing full well it will be declined. He smiles. He apologizes. He sheds tears. Plain theatrics executed with perfect timing. Breezing through life by feeding on the generosity of others while pretending to be one of them was easy. Someone else always paid.

He calls himself a servant of the people. A man who performs good deeds for the camera. Assisting strangers. Arranging favors. Delivering packages. Speaking to government offices. Always showcasing his role in connecting people as if he were a selfless bridge between worlds. Helpful. Dependable. Respectable.

Public service and piety provided the perfect disguise for a parasitic life. Every gesture was calculated. Every angle rehearsed. He posts it all online. Carefully captioned. Perfectly cropped. Sanctified by scripture and hashtags. These small yet visible deeds were always within the reach of a lens that created an illusion of generosity.

But of course, these little things were meant to secure something bigger. It is all for show. A bait. A token to buy public trust. A stepping stone toward personal benefits. Access is always good currency. Pretending to be a facilitator earns access most of the time. Every rehearsed show of concern makes the act more believable. Every calculated good deed earns a reputation. All of these can be cashed in at an opportune time and will be traded for favors.

He pretends to serve. He pretends to give. He pretends to sacrifice. The crowd sees a responsible family man, a man of great faith, a supposed reformer in a crooked world. Religion and morality are props for a character he has been playing for years. He speaks of decency. He speaks of humility. He wears faith like a perfume to mask the stench of his opportunism.

The truth is always as simple as it is ugly.

The highest form of hypocrisy is often exhibited in the confidence of a man who has never examined his own reflection. The talk about the fight against corruption is nothing but a showcase of the mastery of a more elegant form of greed. It is not the kind that steals outright. It is the kind that subtly feeds on trust. One favor, one post, one false display of virtue at a time.

When the time is ripe, he eventually collects, and he systematically drains. Thriving on the politeness of others and on their discomfort at calling him out is an art form. Always appearing to be busy helping. Always tagging big names in photos of goodwill. Always making sure to have his name included when the credits start rolling. Goodness that needs to be photographed is not goodness. It is marketing. It is branding. It is self-serving.

People do not always stay blind. There comes a time when the act becomes too good to be true. There comes a time when the silence is broken. When the performance starts to crack and the whispers grow louder, he knows exactly what to do.

He becomes the victim.

He tells stories of betrayal, of misunderstandings, of people out to destroy his name. The timeline starts to flood with self-pity. Photos of sleepless nights and tearful prayers are posted in rapid succession. He hides behind faith, behind family, behind the lie that he is just trying to do good. The story is rewritten by recasting himself as the wounded man who only ever meant well.

Turning exposure into empathy. Transforming scandal into sympathy. It is a transition that has been perfected over the years. Sob stories would usually make people forget the mistake and remember only how sorry they feel for him. The appeal to pity, although a logical fallacy, was always his weapon of choice. It has always worked because we live in a culture where a bible verse can mask deceit, where a family photo can erase guilt, and where a social media post can pass as moral proof.

He has never paid for anything in full. Not in college. Not in life. Not even in the image he sells. And maybe that is why he keeps getting away with it. It is because of the lapses in judgment that we often make. We would mistake performance for sincerity, noise for conviction, and visibility for worth. A true hypocrite. Living off borrowed virtue. Collecting praise that was never earned. Turning every act of decency into an advertisement for self-glorification. He is not just an individual flaw. He is a mirror. A reflection of what we have come to reward and to tolerate. Someone we have allowed to prosper because of our silence and our inaction.