The older I get, the more I doubt people’s ability to stay (reasonably) sane. After all, the more we fight for our sanity, the less we deserve it.
And thus, from the depths of my insanity, I say this: I don’t believe in innocence!
I would rather believe in ignorance, ineptitude and imbecility, but innocence is a claim that no mature person can back up innocently.
The well-known prestige of innocence needs no further comments. I guess it has always been intact, even today, when nobody believes in moral values (or guilt, for that matter).
The lack of knowledge of evil is one of the most visited topoi in religion and idealistic political systems. It is also one of the most frequent excuses we hear in educational contexts. The excuse usually goes like this: “He did not know what he was doing, he was exploring the world”. Of course, you cannot argue with that. A child is a child.
The “worst” thing about innocence is its being unable to question its own worth, to justify its own merit, and then use it as an alibi.
So once a mature – and „innocent” – person claims her innocence, she becomes an impostor! In this sense, innocence is THE ultimate form of cowardice; if really necessary, a gross form of self-deception; ultimately, a mental illness.
Innocence belongs to children and to “another” world that still believes in meaning in general and in otherworldly models in particular. Otherwise it becomes highly annoying and detrimental to everyone.
We live in an insanely wrong world where even the fools are guilty. So, again, from the depths of my insanity, I would like to defend our right to be guilty, as a honest and practical solution for getting by in a hostile Cosmos.
Less ironically put: a distinct guilt which is reasonably dealt with, is probably nowhere near innocence; however, it makes a lot more sense than sending “innocent inputs” into an „non-ideal mechanism”, like our world seems to be.
So don’t make it worse than it is. Under worldly circumstances, just do not be so indecent to play the innocent. If you let it be, then let it be guilty.
(Foto: fadedandblurred.com)
