Elshof: self-deceived about self-deception

Due to the writings of the existentialists and other cultural trends, the "Good Person" was increasingly being understood as the "Authentic Person".  Being true to oneself became a - or in some cases the - chief good.  Self-deception, then, was given a promotion in the ranking of vices.  What was once a derivative vice - one whose primary importance was found in its ability to facilitate other, more serious, vices - became the most egregious of sins.

Now a remarkable thing happens when a sin get s a promotion...
[Elshof then uses racism as an example of his point]
So whenever a a particular vice gets a promotion in the ordering of vices, the temptation to be self-deceived about that fact that one exhibits that vice increases.  And with the rise of existentialism and the supreme value of authenticity, self-deception got a promotion in the ordering of vices.  And so, paradoxically, the vice of self-deception has been increasingly veiled from view by its own machinations.

Gregg Ten Elshof, I Told Me So, p10-11