No Regrets

For longer than I care to confess, I’ve been writing a guide that takes purpose at our unforgiving society. We’re far too fast to solid individuals out on this nation, an impulse that leaves us dogmatic and merciless. Every chapter of my guide tells the story of a special individual, however all of the individuals I write about have one factor in frequent: They’ve all finished one thing horribly improper. But I consider, and have typically mentioned in these pages and elsewhere, that each one of us can do monstrous issues, which signifies that none of us are monsters. If the guide is profitable, it can problem our poisonous impulse to demonize, within the hope that we would develop into extra understanding of humanity’s frailty.

However now that I’m nearing the end, I’ve hit a psychological roadblock and am coming to you for assist. All of the individuals I write about have been racked by guilt. They deeply regretted the hurt they’d finished and the ache they’d precipitated, which softens society’s perspective towards them. However what about somebody who has finished a horrible factor however feels no regret in any respect?

Regret is difficult. Not straight away, however later, whenever you begin to flip it over in your head. At first, it’s easy. After we hear about somebody who has finished one thing godawful, we hope or insist that they specific some remorse. Their regret indicators to society that they acknowledge the improper they’ve finished, and provides us some cause to consider they’ll behave in another way sooner or later. And in the event that they don’t specific this regret, it rubs us the improper manner. Intuitively, we really feel there’s something improper with somebody who doesn’t acknowledge after they have precipitated ache, and no matter that one thing is, we really feel society has a proper, and perhaps an obligation, to take it into consideration when it decides how to answer what the individual has finished.

However it rapidly will get very difficult. What about individuals who have finished one thing very improper within the eyes of 1 neighborhood however not one other? As I used to be scripting this, a grand jury in Louisiana indicted Dr. Margaret Carpenter for “legal abortion via abortion-inducing medication.” The grand jury alleges Dr. Carpenter despatched abortion capsules via the mail that have been used to abort the being pregnant of a minor in West Baton Rouge Parish. The native district legal professional says Dr. Carpenter violated state regulation. “I simply don’t know underneath what idea might a health care provider be pondering that it is best to ship your capsules to Louisiana to abort our residents’ infants. The capsule could also be authorized in New York. It’s not authorized in Louisiana.” However in response to the indictment, New York Governor Kathy Hochul vowed that the state of New York would “by no means, underneath any circumstances, flip this physician over to the state of Louisiana underneath any extradition request.” To some communities, Dr. Carpenter is a hero; to others, she is complicit in homicide. A few of us assume she ought to by no means specific regret as a result of she has finished nothing improper; others would insist upon it, and would possibly punish her far more severely if she didn’t.

Regret thus indicators a need to be a part of the neighborhood that made the principles an individual has been accused of breaking. And that’s how students describe it; they conceive regret as a request to affix or rejoin a “ethical neighborhood.” But typically, the individual is combating in opposition to that very neighborhood, and typically, that combat is righteous; few of us right this moment would say, as an illustration, that Rosa Parks ought to have expressed regret for failing to maneuver to the again 0f the bus in Birmingham, Alabama.

So, it appears to me as if regret acknowledges the legitimacy of an current order, which suggests it could smack headlong right into a competing need to protest and alter that order. Who is true: those that would protect the present order or those that would tear it down? Who will get to determine? And the way ought to the rulebreaker be handled within the meantime, whereas this wrestle is happening?

This isn’t merely a tutorial train. Most of the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol January 6, 2021, insist they’re revolutionary patriots whose improper, if any, pales compared to the much more grievous improper they have been making an attempt to stop. President Trump apparently agrees with them. Ought to they specific regret for what they did? Ought to they acknowledge the ache they precipitated and the hurt they did? If they don’t, ought to society solid them out? In that case, what would that appear to be, provided that imprisonment is not an possibility? I confess I have no idea the reply to those questions, however I’ve discovered through the years that one of the best ways for me to reply my questions is to pay attention very fastidiously to these on the middle of the talk.

So, if you happen to have been convicted for what you probably did January 6 and don’t remorse it, I need to hear from you. In case you are ready to share, overtly and candidly, your ideas about what you probably did and why, I need to pay attention. I can promise you a respectful viewers to your ideas, and you may determine how and whether or not these reflections will likely be shared.

And naturally, the occasions of January 6 are just one event which may current this conundrum, so I’d lengthen the invitation extra broadly: For those who have been condemned for one thing you probably did however that you don’t remorse, I need to hear from you.

Within the curiosity of narrowing this request, let me put some bounds round it. Some persons are condemned for issues they didn’t do; they don’t specific regret as a result of they consider they’ve been wrongly accused. These individuals settle for the present guidelines however don’t assume they violated them. That’s a special class and never my focus. I’m within the circumstances the place an individual was condemned for what they really did—they knowingly broke the principles—however they nonetheless don’t remorse it and don’t really feel regret.

If that’s you, I’d like to listen to from you. You’ll be able to attain me on the e-mail under.

As all the time, and within the spirit of considerate dialog, if in case you have any reactions to this or any of my essays, be at liberty to share them with me at jm347@cornell.edu.