Another face of hypocrisy

From First Things: The Hypocrisy of Masks

C. S. Lewis in a passage from his autobiography, Surprised by Joy. Discussing his experience as a soldier in the Great War, he writes of a fellow soldier who was not only (like Lewis) a scholar from Oxford, but also—alarmingly to Lewis—“a man of conscience,” committed to adhering to taken-for-granted moral principles.

Embarrassed by the contrast with his own life, Lewis did his best to conceal the fact that he himself had not taken moral obligations so seriously.... "then I must conclude that hypocrisy can do a man good. To be ashamed of what you were about to say, to pretend that something which you had meant seriously was only a joke—this is an ignoble part. But it is better than not to be ashamed at all. ... When a boor first enters the society of courteous people what can he do, for a while, except imitate the motions? How can he learn except by imitation?"

A mask can be a tool to make me look good, but it could be a bandage too--protecting my wound until it heals, and protecting you from my uncleanness.