I am not sure what Emily Oster expected when she published her plea for a “pandemic amnesty.” If her intention was to make peace, then she made a mistake, because peace cannot be made by nice intentions, and she offers nothing else.
Even before the pandemic, even agnostics like Douglas Murray (in "The Madness of Crowds") and Stephen Asma (in "Why We Need Religion") have written at length about the positive effects of forgiveness on individuals and society.
Yes, I think the atrophy of forgiveness as a practice - a loss which can certainly happen alongside increasingly loud talk about the need to forgive - is a powerful warning sign. Hannah Arendt also comes t mind; she thought our capacity to forgive is central our capacity to exercise our freedom, to live in a free world.
I had a dream recently that everything in the World (the human world) was trying to fit itself through a doorway in a massive hurry, and there was a log jam that was taking some time to clear. Waking, of course I remembered Matthew 7:13 (but had to look it up!) Thank you so much for your essay - it was very helpful to my current state of mind, which does seem to be primarily a conflict of conscience. I wish more people could read it, I'm sure there are many, many of us trying to come to some kind of terms with all of this and find the path forward.
Bravo! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Even before the pandemic, even agnostics like Douglas Murray (in "The Madness of Crowds") and Stephen Asma (in "Why We Need Religion") have written at length about the positive effects of forgiveness on individuals and society.
Yes, I think the atrophy of forgiveness as a practice - a loss which can certainly happen alongside increasingly loud talk about the need to forgive - is a powerful warning sign. Hannah Arendt also comes t mind; she thought our capacity to forgive is central our capacity to exercise our freedom, to live in a free world.
I had a dream recently that everything in the World (the human world) was trying to fit itself through a doorway in a massive hurry, and there was a log jam that was taking some time to clear. Waking, of course I remembered Matthew 7:13 (but had to look it up!) Thank you so much for your essay - it was very helpful to my current state of mind, which does seem to be primarily a conflict of conscience. I wish more people could read it, I'm sure there are many, many of us trying to come to some kind of terms with all of this and find the path forward.
Thank you Sheri. I'm glad you read it and took help from it, even if you are only one person!