Posts
Hey all (And Happy Friday the 13th!),
Before I walk through any ladders made of broken mirrors, let's cut to the chase...
I've been thinking about guilt. Guilt is kinda an annoying thing. There's being guilty, and then there's feeling guilty. Guilt is a word of largely unknown etymological origin, which has a few definitions:
1: the fact of having committed a breach of conduct especially violating law and involving a penalty ; broadly : guilty conduct
2 a: the state of one who has committed an offense especially consciously
1: the fact of having committed a breach of conduct especially violating law and involving a penalty ; broadly : guilty conduct
2 a: the state of one who has committed an offense especially consciously
b: feelings of culpability especially for imagined offenses or from a sense of inadequacy : self-reproach
3: a feeling of culpability for offense
3: a feeling of culpability for offense
(from Merriam-Webster online Dictionary)
I think its a bit weird that we use this one word to express both the state of culpability (nice fancy word for deserving of blame) and for feelings of regret and remorse. I mean, when you're in a courtroom pleading guilty to a crime, you might be admitting that you did it, but that doesn't mean you regret it. Note for any Supreme Court Justices reading this blog post: change verdicts from guilty and not guilty to include degrees of remorse. So instead we will have 4 verdicts: Guilty without Regret, Guilty with Regret, Not Guilty without Regret, Not Guilty with Regret.
That last one is, of course, the most rare plea/verdict meaning "I didn't do it but I wish I had."
Guilt is also pretty annoying because declaring someone guilty by no means makes it so. I mean, if you caught someone in the act or have undeniable evidence and knowledge, that's one thing (see the last 4 posts for thoughts about Knowledge), but it is entirely another when you are asking 12 people to decide the culpability of someone, and once they do, that's it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to take down the Judicial System or anything (And you people who are saddened by this, don't worry, Project Delta Judicium is still in motion *wink*), I just think it's kinda weird that a jury declaring something so makes instantly true where it wasn't necessarily true before. Like innocent until proven guilty and all that, if you're guilty, you're guilty until proven guilty, aren't you? And if you're innocent, you might be innocent until "proven" guilty - oh my god I just realized I've created the concept of quantum guilt... what an awful thing. I am a terrible person. Sorry.
I just started thinking about the difference between feeling guilty and actually being in a state of guiltiness, and now I kind of got a bit off track...
OK, maybe that was the wrong way to think about things like this, I was just thinking out onto the page. Let's try the word approach to attack this. And it seems that we've attacked declaring guilt enough, so let's go the other way and talk about declaring innocence - freeing people from blaming as opposed to placing it:
Here are the words I've been thinking about, I want you to think how these words fit together. They are (supposed) synonyms which one could do to declare innocence. I want you to examine (even if you don't know the definition, just think about how it looks/sounds) what you think the connotations of each word is. I'll tell you how I think about each of them and what the dictionary says they imply. (Note: if you are playing along you cannot use any of the 9 words in your definitions... that's no fun!)
1. Absolution
2. Acquittance
3. Amnesty
4. Exculpation
5. Exemption
6. Exoneration
7. Forgiveness
8. Pardon
9. Vindication
Didja think about each of them?
If so scroll...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...DID YOU REALLY LOOK AT THEM OR ARE YOU LYING TO ME WHY WOULD YOU DO SUCH A THING
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...JUST KIDDING I LOVE YOU :)
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
My connotations (Without looking at a dictionary):
My connotations (Without looking at a dictionary):
1. Absolution - When I hear this (or the word absolve) I think of being completely freed from guilt and blame. It has religious connotations even in non-religious context. Someone should probably be guilty to be ABSOLVED.
2. Acquittance - A very formal and official freeing from guilt (perhaps superficial?).
3. Amnesty - Hmm... not totally sure here. Seems formal and official like #2, but also seems to me to be a deeper freeing from being guilty.
4. Exculpation - Hmm... fancy word. I always remember the definition of this as "free from blame," and I guess that has slightly different connotations than "declare not guilty." I'm gonna go with declaring one innocent to the point where one is not blamed at all anymore.
5.Exemption - More of an excuse than a freeing from guilt. With an EXEMPTION, guilt does not even apply.
6. Exoneration - Another fancy one! I'd wager that this has strong connotation of innocence and complete lifting off the weight of the shoulders of the former-accused.
7. Forgiveness - This word is so very different than the others. When you FORGIVE someone, not only are you freeing them from guilt, but you are acknowledging their wrongdoing (you don't forgive innocent people) and saying that it is okay... that they should just learn from thir mistakes.
8. Pardon - most like #2, a formal, not very deep, acknowledgement of innocence
9. Vindication - Quite deep free from blame and guilt. I'd say it's most like #6
6. Exoneration - Another fancy one! I'd wager that this has strong connotation of innocence and complete lifting off the weight of the shoulders of the former-accused.
7. Forgiveness - This word is so very different than the others. When you FORGIVE someone, not only are you freeing them from guilt, but you are acknowledging their wrongdoing (you don't forgive innocent people) and saying that it is okay... that they should just learn from thir mistakes.
8. Pardon - most like #2, a formal, not very deep, acknowledgement of innocence
9. Vindication - Quite deep free from blame and guilt. I'd say it's most like #6
Whew. That was harder than I thought it'd be. How do you think it went?
Here are the connotations according to Oxford English Dictionary:
1. Absolution - the most general term, meaning to set free or release - not only from guilt or blame - but from duty, obligations, or penalty of an offense
2. Acquittance - release someone from a specific and formal accusation of wrongdoing
3. Amnesty - an official pardon (hey! OED broke the rules of my game!) for people who have been convicted of political offenses
4. Exculpation - show or declare that someone is not guilty of wrong doing
5. Exemption - less to do with guilt and punishment and more to do with duty and obligation
6. Exoneration - relief in a moral sense, from a definite charge so that not even the suspicion of wrongdoing remains
7. Forgiveness - the most magnanimous of all. It implies not only giving up the idea that the offense should be punished, but also relinquishing any feelings of resentment or vengefulness
8. Pardon - refers to actions of the government, specifically refers to release from prosecution or punishment
9. Vindication - similar to #6 (Yay!), "off the hook", usually due to the examination of evidence
Hey, not bad! I'd say that 4 and 6 were the only ones where I missed the part of the connotation that makes each word unique. Although, remember that just because OED says it doesn't mean that that's the way it always has to be used! So, if you were far off, just think about the differences and maybe try and justify your thoughts! Maybe you had a colloquial definition that OED isn't kool enough to know! Like maybe:
"Aw man! You just got EXCULPATED so hard!"
Ok, well... maybe not that.
Happy connoting!
Quentin
No comments:
Post a Comment