Dipa - The concept of "radical evil" comes from the philosopher Hannah
Arendt who wrote about in her book about Eichmann. She used it to
distinguish between ordinary trespasses, which can be repaired and remedied,
and acts, such as Eichmann's, which are so destructive or permanent, that
they cannot be repaired. A murder is such an act.
Common forgiveness is a release given for less than full-compensation. For
example, a young woman who was house-sitting our cats borrowed my car and
crashed it. She paid 1/3 the cost of the damage and I forgave the rest. In
forgiving her, she no longer "owes" me anything. If she had committed an
act of radical evil, purposely killing the cats, this type of common
forgiveness would be impossible.
We discussed these concepts in my prison group yesterday. One of the men
told me a story. He has been incarcerated 33 years for being an accessory
to 1st degree murder. During the crime, he left his co-defendant with the
victim. The victim screamed "Help me" as he was being murdered. The man
did nothing to stop the killing. He was caught, convicted, and sentence to
"life without parole." Five years into his sentence, there was an attempted
mass prison break from his unit. He retreated into his room as fighting
broke out between prisoners and guards. He heard a guard, who had been set
upon by a group of prisoners, screaming, "Help me." At that moment, the
spirit of his murder victim came to life within in. The spirit compelled
him, propelled him, out of the room to save the guard's life, which he did.
At that time and afterwards, he did not reflect much on the philosophy of
this event. But through our experiences with Constellations in prison and
our discussion, it clicked for him that this was a very concrete example of
the victim-perpetrator bond and an illustration of how forgiveness works in
cases of acts of radical evil. The forgiveness is not complete. The guilt
is not absolved, or even reduced. But through his guilt and the bond, a
life on the verge of being lost was saved. With this, he earned a measure
of forgiveness and his dignity.
Dan
p.s. A cleaned-up version of my post to CT is on my website
www.HiddenSolution.com/arnie.htm.
-----Original Message-----
From: ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of dipa
Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2008 10:22 AM
To: ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ConstellationTalk] Re: Crime. Punishment, Apology and Forgivenss
Hi Dan,
thank-you for your contribution and concise definition of the
forgiving act in constellation work.
can i know what is the definition and examples of "radical acts of
evil"?
also just wondering if there a difference, in forgiveness, of someone
who commits 'radical acts of evil' and one who commits any other act?
to me, it seems like there is none - forgiveness as how you have
defined it, seems to cover acts of imbalance in give and take, whether
it be murder, adultery or petty crime etc.
Best wishes, Dipa
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
