Let’s hypothesize that the Africans kidnapped from their shores by European slave traders succeeded in a mass revolt, took over European technology, and after a significant struggle attained revenge by enslaving all White people. Cruelties, whippings, rapes and reversed living conditions later, you have a society that has not righted the original wrong at all – just switched the colors involved.
Perhaps our greatest blessing as a human community, and as each individual person, is that we are not doomed to live the full consequences of our actions; we have been let off the hook with just a hint of what kind of harm we have done. We have been allowed to travel down our chosen path far enough to get a sense of where it leads without actually going to its culmination. In many cases, full justice would undermine our opportunities to grow, reflect, and learn from our mistakes as a society.
As Frank Herbert puts it: “Any path followed precisely to its end, leads precisely nowhere.” The lesson I take from this is that while focus is good, it’s unhealthy to reify your goals and insist that they be completed. Oftentimes it’s better to fulfill your goals only a little, then move on to something else. Everything in moderation.
