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Funny, I consider the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious pseudo-sophistication as a mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel...the mask of cruelty.

Your use of Baldwin here begs the question[1]. We can all agree that "the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion" is bad. It's bad by definition, as indicated by "excessive" and "spurious" (and "ostentatious," to a lesser degree).

What we can't all agree on are absolute standards for excessiveness, spuriousness, or ostentatiousness. So what Baldwin wrote is irrelevant unless you first show how the article is an example of excessive and spurious emotion.

Otherwise, you're simply saying "It's bad because it's bad. Q.E.D."

1. The quote itself is not intrinsically question-begging.

What an interesting writer. I've never heard of him before. Thanks!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Baldwin

Sorry, I could have told you about him.