On the idea of Amnesty (version 2 updated 08/11/2022)

...and why we should forgive (some but not all) but never forget

I’m weighing in on this contentious topic because I am rather disturbed by the simplistic thinking of most of the commentators on this particular topic. It seems that, for even normally sophisticated commentators, that their approach is “all or nothing”. However, I see multiple shades of grey.

I think there has to be an amnesty for some people, some time down the line. Not now, not immediately, and not until all the draconian measures have been removed from the statute books, but eventually.

I have identified three different groups who I maintain we must treat differently.

The Policy Makers

The first and most culpable are the policy makers who designed and created the enforcement systems for the state over-reach, related to all aspects of lockdown and vaccination. There can be no amnesty for them. Their crimes must be exposed and they must be tried and imprisoned in a way that does not cost the taxpayer. And their infrastructure must be dismantled so they can never do it again.

I propose re-purposing all those quarantine camps they built and threatened to use to to imprison the unvaxxed, as civilised prisons for the covid criminals. They get to lead completely normal lives that they pay for through their own enterprise, with one major difference; they never go outside the fences around them. That's it. Let them work, let them run businesses, let them eat good food, let them wear good clothes, let them communicate via any available technology with the outside world. And we tax them and their businesses as the rich should always have been taxed. But they never get out. That's it.

The Implementation and Enforcement Teams

The second are those who implemented and those who enforced the policies. They are the people who exerted real life-changing power over other people. This is the medical profession, education, police force, legal system, media, influencers and employers who terminated un-jabbed staff. These people are essential to the continuance of society, and too numerous to prosecute, so they cannot be universally tried and punished in any normal way. I would suggest that they could be asked for an admission of guilt and an apology, with some kind of socially based penalty - perhaps even a higher taxation rate - if they fail to do so. Most of these are cowards, motivated by a composite of fear and greed, and just "went along to get along". They will “go along to get along” again, so we can trust them to switch sides to the winning side once we are winning. They are victims of the first group and their own quisling natures.

The Cheer Squad

The third are the cheer squad who cheered on the designers, the implementers and the enforcers of the policies. This includes all those citizen bullies who made life difficult for the un-jabbed, unmasked and those who could not be intimidated. Again we are dealing with cowards motivated by fear, who are victims of both the first and second groups. They are too numerous, and as individuals, too inconsequential, to waste any more energy on them.

Forgive but never forget

WE have to move on, so we have to forgive them (particularly those we once loved) but of course, NEVER forget. We must never forget that modern man (and perhaps humankind always and ever) is appallingly easily manipulated, and that they will degenerate into, and enjoy barbarity, whenever that behaviour is rewarded rather than punished. We must always remember that, what they have done once, they will do again. We can never recover from that absolute betrayal of trust by our fellow man. But for our own sake, WE have to move on.

My 2 cents worth.

Afterword

A few comments here have talked about God and retribution, and accusing me of missing the spiritual side of this issue. I have not missed it. I have avoided it. I do not think that one person, any person, from any spiritual system, can interpret for the rest of the 8 billion human beings on earth, how their version of “God” would mete out justice to those who have transgressed. As far as I am concerned, this article is about human beings, not gods, and the options available to us, as human beings, so that we can move on from the crime committed against us, as human beings. I do not speak for any god, and do not accept that any other human being can tell me they are speaking on behalf of any god.

”Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.”