The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Post-pandemic society: we will not be able to forgive each other for some things

2021-05-06T13:36:53.433Z


Serious mistakes have been made in the pandemic. Some are unforgivable. If our society wants to heal, it must not forget - and must try to be reconciled.


Enlarge image

Counter-protest on the sidelines of a lateral thinker demo in Berlin, April 24, 2021

Photo: Jean MW / imago images / Future Image

"We are on the home straight, finally, long, but the end of the pandemic is in sight!" This is what has been heard from the mouths of many, including those in political responsibility, for days - on Sunday evening from that of Bavarian Prince Söder at Anne Will's. It is time to leave the rhetoric of the "eternal winter" behind us and instead "draw a little more hope," said Vice Chancellor Scholz on ZDF. Let us leave aside how long the home straight will be, whether there is reason for hope for everyone, or whether there will still be unforeseen hardships ahead of us in the form of avoidable divisions in society in the coming weeks.

We - each individual like the country - will not be through with the pandemic.

We will see more clearly where we stand, what we have gained, what we have lost, what damage to soul and body we have sustained as individuals, but also as a society.

What is certain is that we are damaged and will remain so for the time being.

To the author

Photo: German Ethics Council / R.

Censoring

Peter Dabrock,

born in 1964, is a Protestant theologian, professor of systematic theology with a focus on ethics at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and was chairman of the German Ethics Council until April 2020.

Right: some things went well. When it was not yet clear that more and more serious illnesses would occur in the younger generation and that long-term consequences (“long covid syndrome”) would be ascertainable, the younger generation showed admirable solidarity with the older generation. It is already doing this, in an example, in the third online semester. Or with the creative use of many teachers, in order to enable their students at least the approach of tangible educational experience - beyond the mess of paperwork. Or with the commitment of millions of doctors, geriatric nurses and nurses for your critically ill patients, which goes beyond normal forces - and in the natural work of all personal services, always associated with the risk of becoming infected.The courageous use of politics at the beginning of the crisis should not be forgotten in everything that came afterwards, when it seemed increasingly to run out of breath.

Some things went wrong, some things were messed up properly and some things were irretrievably broken.

But some things went wrong, some things got messed up and some things were irretrievably broken.

Well over 80,000 people - despite all efforts and also because of some failures - lost their lives.

Involuntarily, one thinks of Jens Spahn's downright prophetic word about the need to forgive from April 2020. Many, including me, have used this formulation wisely and with foresight.

Because Spahn was right: never in the history of the Federal Republic has there been a challenge that would result in such deep and far-reaching decisions as that of the pandemic.

more on the subject

Corona decisions: Spahn seeks understanding

As the pandemic increased, bearing in mind what one has experienced above all in the course of the long winter, I asked myself: Was the word really that wise? Even if Minister Spahn meant it seriously, it occurred to me - almost against my own will - whether he was increasingly gaining the role of being able to serve as a clean bill of health for neglect. What irritates me most of all is what is supposedly self-evident: "We will have to forgive each other!" That sounds like, despite the future tense II: No sooner said than done!

But doing (and also ought to) presupposes ability. It is therefore necessary to ask: Can, want or should "we" forgive at all? Beyond the possible questions about the status of the over-inclusive we (who is 'we'? Who has the right, who takes it upon himself to speak for the 'we'?) The question arises: Can, may and should one such To direct expectation to others: to forgive? Isn't it intrusive? In order to be forgiven, doesn't one have to practice active repentance without, however, being guaranteed that one will be forgiven? Doesn't the "spirit" of forgiveness lie in the fact that, with all the hope for it, it is always a gift from the other in the end? An unexpected gift that can never result in calculating certainty of expectation? If one does not destroy the future-opening of forgiveness from the outset,when one demands reciprocity in a moral tone? It just doesn't work like that: "Everyone says forgiveness is a wonderful idea - until they have something to forgive themselves", one reads of "unknown" in collections of sayings - nevertheless wise!

There is no right to forgiveness when loved ones struggle with themselves and with society for leaving a loved one alone in the last hours of life.

The main objection to such thoughts should not be lost in grandiose speculation about terms.

It is clear what Jens Spahn meant: Everything in the pandemic is difficult enough and accordingly difficult to decide.

In the end, we can only overcome the darkness if we admit mistakes that have been made to ourselves and to others - and only in this way, and that's what we all wanted, we can even turn to the future.

But it's not that easy.

One may (want to) forgive some things - such as the small-minded and at the same time cocky attempts to exploit one's own political position of power in order to want to make vile money at the expense of the general public. In addition to the mask affair, some of which is waiting for the public prosecutor to deal with it, one may still think of one or the other scam. The mostly informal sanctions go far beyond their hoped-for benefit for those affected. The majority will still want to forgive here. The level of moral generosity differs from person to person, but overall it is likely to increase over time.

Beyond what has worked well and what can hope for forgiveness in accordance with all established expectation routines, many things have gone so fundamentally and traumatically wrong that many hopes for more or less forgiveness are unacceptable from the point of view of many. There is no right to forgiveness when relatives quarrel with themselves and society, oh what desperate they have left a loved one alone in the last hours of life - and not only in the beginning of the pandemic with all the uncertainties, but also still in the face of incomprehensible home regulations in year two?

And, even if it is hard to say: the hesitation in the procurement of vaccines and rapid tests, which was often dealt with by the most varied of media, blocked the fight against pandemics in late autumn and winter just as massively as politically self-serving competitions between countries and with the federal government - despite the recommendations leading scientist: inside were clear since the middle of last year in the event of the start of a third wave.

To help people remember: This back and forth, which is difficult to justify in retrospect, has cost many people dead.

Almost three quarters of the deaths occur at a time when, without these delays and quarrels, the pandemic control could have been far more effective.

more on the subject

Corona depression in children: "I'm shocked at how much so many have changed" By Alexandra Frank

Should people, who under these conditions have lost the "middle of their life," as it is often called in obituaries, forgive?

Can you expect that?

Can one suggest “sponge over it” if one's own existence has been destroyed economically and not infrequently also personally, or if one sees that children and young people are so set back in their life development that some experts fear that it will be difficult to catch up?

Individual fates defy any claim to forgiveness. Good for those who are forgiven by the injured party. It is another matter whether we in society can and will collectively forgive these honestly undeniable omissions and wrong decisions? Precisely because so many people have died or are traumatized, embittered, disappointed and frustrated behind the figures, "we" cannot on the one hand not be - as what, actually? - forgive. On the other hand, it must and should continue - also as a society. So we have to try to live the "damaged life" (Th. W. Adorno) anew. If such a wish, experienced as necessary, is behind the request for "forgiveness", everything possible must be tried in this direction - precisely in order to turn adversity. What is not enough is a more or less pathetic sorry - but then:"The caravan moves on". You don't have to be a prophet or a trauma therapist to predict that simply going on like this will take revenge, sooner or later - and it would be a mockery of the victims, the dead and the living. The request made from high-level politicians stands or falls with the effort they and society as a whole are willing to invest to come to terms with the pandemic.

The damage and omissions are too great to leave the whole thing to a parliamentary committee of inquiry.

The damage and omissions are too great to leave the whole thing to a parliamentary committee of inquiry.

These regularly serve the politically understandable but completely inadequate purpose for the pandemic, namely to identify the guilty party (always with the others, of course) and to demand "political consequences" without any real expectation of consequences.

If the pandemic is coming to terms with the past, it should be done in order to learn from what has happened.

Learning does not mean that history repeats itself and that one could then act better in a similar situation.

Even such a function does not correspond to the size of the challenge to be dealt with.

Maybe we need something like a truth and reconciliation commission.

Where forgiveness for a damaged life is not possible, one can and should try to work towards reconciliation with sore wounds or crippling scarring.

Such a way of dealing with the pandemic does not want to suppress or gloss over the past.

It wants to win the future - through what cannot be done good.

Maybe we need something like a truth and reconciliation commission. Whether it is to be located at the Bundestag like an enquete or organized as a civil society freestanding is a matter of controversy. It is crucial that it can send a signal to society as a whole. Reconcile means: One can not be business as usual in the damaged caused by the pandemic life after its end, and with some more or less slight changes (more Home Office, less travel, and similar well-meaning but modest at the end proposals) the whole

shelved

place.

I can already hear that such a proposal is presumptuous or cheap. A truth and reconciliation commission helped South Africa to come to terms with the inhuman apartheid system and its crimes - the failures of the pandemic are categorically different from this. Correct! But wasn't the pandemic the biggest crisis in history in 70 years? Are over 83,000 deaths and obvious political failures in important decisions no reason to seriously pause together - not with the aim of sharpening long knives, but opening up the future? To open up just one perspective: I still doubt and despair that politics has left children and families behind in almost all ruling parties. So many constructive suggestions have been on the table for a year:Nothing happened.

Again and again, decisions have been postponed and parents have been thanked for their tireless commitment with unctuous, but inconsequential letters and encouraged them to persevere a little longer (in parts of Bavaria, besides home office, now with a small interruption since mid-December 2020).

For the sake of the younger generation, I cannot and do not want to leave such political failure in the air.

In such elementary questions - after all, it is about the present of our children and their and our future - what has not happened has to be dealt with.

Otherwise my trust will be permanently shaken not only in the willingness to act, but also in the ability of politics to act.

We don't care that the incidence figures in one and the same city differ by a factor of 10 depending on the residential area - chic villa district or high-rise block?

Do we just want to ignore the deep frustration of parents, fed by the perception of how little the children and their own work were respected while at the same time the professional disadvantage caused by the combination of homeschooling and home office? Do we want to continue as a society just as unreconciled as with the blatant unequal treatment of large corporations and economic activity in the family and solo self-employed sector - some receive strong support, others often reach for the ceiling in vain - as they were relentlessly exposed in the pandemic is? Let's leave it at the tired clapping for the systemically relevant professions,so that in the next catastrophe they will again stand with their wife and husband until they are exhausted? Do we want to keep important public parts of the health and social system at the technical level of pencil and fax machines? We don't care that the incidence figures in one and the same city differ by a factor of 10 depending on the residential area - chic villa district or high-rise block? Do we not want to wrestle about how we can better cope with collective legal and political efforts without ranting about the dictatorship of hygiene or the state of emergency?that the incidence figures in one and the same city differ by a factor of 10 depending on the residential area - chic villa district or high-rise block? Do we not want to wrestle about how we can better cope with collective legal and political efforts without ranting about the dictatorship of hygiene or the state of emergency?that the incidence figures in one and the same city differ by a factor of 10 depending on the residential area - chic villa district or high-rise block? Do we not want to wrestle about how we can better cope with collective legal and political efforts without ranting about the dictatorship of hygiene or the state of emergency?

The list of questions behind which there are experiences that are unforgivable for many, but which at the same time could release hope if they were finally taken up, could easily be extended.

Yes, we don't have any crimes to deal with.

But we shouldn't allow ourselves to be calmed down by the large-scale sociological analysis; after a brief irritation, the routine took over again quite confidently - and things were going very well.

Firstly - and this is shown by the example of the Biden administration - a lot is possible, even in Germany.

Second, something else is needed so that we can look at valuable opportunities that we will certainly need to find ways out of the pandemic, damaged and perhaps reconciled.

For this we should come together: perhaps without forgiveness, but ready for reconciliation.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-05-06

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.