| The Amateur (3) |
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I can't seem to shake the thought: imagine you were on the moon, you were skimming the paper and you'd allow yourself while reading about the squabblings about fraud and political revolution to be carried away by the sentiment of the first impression - wouldn't your simple conclusion be that no-one who has ever been involved in anything hinting at the inappropriate may ever again say anything at all whatever evil? But wouldn't this elicit a smirking expression on your face, way up there on the moon, because it makes the disclosure of evils a virtual impossibility? The letter of the law and the spirit of sensation are in cahoots in this respect: it is the price of freedom, the cost of compassion and the gains of the ego which in your questioning eyes admit no contradiction. No longer can you voice a suspicion without producing written proof: before you know it, you'll be charged with defamation or sued for damages. If that's how it works from now on, it'd be much more sensible to stay silent. In this respect the option of reporting crimes and misdemeanours on a basis of anonymity is quite simply confirmation of a society where fear has gained the upper hand. Unless the words "admitting to guilt" and "forgiving" were also included in society's dictionary, but if I were to tell you to look them up, the question alone would imply that there isn't any real hope at all, and that doesn't get us anywhere either. But if this unobtrusive word, awareness, were assessed at its proper potential inclusive of clumsiness and good intentions, surely there should be a moment of good and evil coming with subtle distinctions which can be freely discussed as part of everyday social life. That's all very well, but that makes the risk of abuse of confidence the argument, doesn't it? So let's get cracking on that and at least try pinpointing the source of our discontent, in the knowledge that if even the law is a flow-on from our dissatisfaction, this kills a lot of joy in advance. Of course I am aware of the tut-tut noises you've been making - if not because you can adequately counter my arguments, then surely because of a sense of embarrassment by proxy on your part. The same thing always happens to me whenever someone raises their voice, even if it's fair enough what they have to say. Fortunately experience has shown that readers can be considerably more courageous than writers, so I'll postpone this debate for now if you don't mind. |