Slog - Comments on On Forgiveness http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/on_forgivness Hannah Arendt once wrote: "The great boldness and unique pride of the concept of forgiveness as a basic relationship between humans does not lie in the seeming reversal of the calamity of guilt and error into the possible virtues of magnanimity or solidarity. It is rather that forgiving attempts to do the impossible, to undo what has been done, and it succeeds in making a new beginning where beginnings seemed to have become no longer possible... The only political expression of forgiveness found [in our times] is the purely negative right to pardon...." Libby is of course an example of... Copyright 2008 Tue, 10 Jul 2007 10:32:09 -0800 Tue, 10 Jul 2007 19:53:14 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Will in Seattle The only forgiveness for Treason is a bullet in the brain by a firing squad.

Seriously.

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/on_forgivness#c760847 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/on_forgivness#c760847 Media Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:16:10 -0800 Comment by karst Christ, what a terrible writer she was.

]]> karst http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/on_forgivness#c760860 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/on_forgivness#c760860 Media Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:48:46 -0800 Comment by D Huygens Forgiveness should definitely be an ideal, but it is meaningless without true contrition on the part of the perpetrator. And forgiveness does not obviate the need for justice.

I would be happy to forgive Libby if I felt he were contrite and if he demonstrated remorse by fulfilling his obligation to society in the form of serving his sentence.

]]> D Huygens http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/on_forgivness#c760893 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/on_forgivness#c760893 Media Tue, 10 Jul 2007 12:46:59 -0800 Comment by Will in Seattle Contrite? He's a Red Bushie.

They don't even know how to SPELL contrite.

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/on_forgivness#c760908 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/on_forgivness#c760908 Media Tue, 10 Jul 2007 13:05:22 -0800 Comment by D Huygens Exactly. Which is why he is not deserving of forgiveness.

]]> D Huygens http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/on_forgivness#c761003 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/on_forgivness#c761003 Media Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:51:57 -0800 Comment by Jay Arendt's first language was German. A lot of her books were written and then translated. The works she wrote in English were as good as you could expect the writing to be, and her style certainly fit in with the blocky kind of text you found in political theory of the time. Her arguments are clear, concise and well reasoned. And that's good enough.


]]> Jay http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/on_forgivness#c761275 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/on_forgivness#c761275 Media Tue, 10 Jul 2007 19:53:14 -0800