The Newsome Absolution

COVID Amnesty or Absolution

A period of US history that I never paid enough attention to was The Great Awakening. It was a period of fervent religious revival. Itinerant preachers travelled across the US, and often in hastily constructed tents, zealously preached about the forgiveness of sins, enthusiasm for Christianity, and fire and brimstone.

We have just lived through our own similar era. Within days of population-wide lockdowns, a new religious like fervor swept the land. It was complete with new rituals like piously covering one’s face, one-way processions in grocery aisles, the solemn, reverent gesture of yielding six feet of space, the purification of spirit by vaccination, and the excommunication of blasphemers and heretics.

The effects and implications of this fervor are still with us. Many of the previously devout followers now understand they were duped. Even if they refuse to acknowledge it, the idea persists, hidden within the subconscious mind. Thus we see articles like Emily Oster’s, “Let’s Declare a Pandemic Amnesty.”

But the thing is: We didn’t know.

Amnesty, however, implies self-awareness of wrong-doing. It is the act of asking for forgiveness, and then the payment of amends. Amnesty is not what is being sought.

There is a better word; a better concept. It allows allows hidden thoughts and feelings to stay in the subconscious, even to be excised entirely with minimal effort. That word is absolution.

Recently, one of the most celebrated leaders of the fervor provides the offering.

To his followers, he was persecuted himself by a recall election and bad press for his own sins. He now openly acknowledges he would have done things differently.

I think we would’ve done everything differently.

I think all of us in terms of our collective wisdom, we’ve evolved. We didn’t know what we didn’t know. We’re experts in hindsight. We’re all geniuses now.

I think there’s a lot of humility. And we didn’t know what we didn’t know. And it was hardly I; it was we, collectively.

Just like that, Gavin Newsome, has collectivized any guilt and humility and then absolves the individual from it. He transfers the sin from the individual to the group: It was hardly I. We didn’t know.

Absolution is the act of freeing oneself from blame or guilt. It is a release, maybe not from the actual consequences of our actions, but from how we feel about them. As such, it is also the last religious ritual offered.

Absolution is often administered on a person’s deathbed. The last rites are a set of prayers intending to free the sinner from sin and send him off to the afterlife with a pure soul to face judgement.

In this sense, the people who closed businesses, banished the unvaccinated, limited hospital visitations or attendance at funerals, halted international travel, shuttered schools, caused irrevocable learning loss, and even shunned their own family and friends are freed from the consequences of their actions. They are free to move on without self-reflection; without any cost.

It was hardly I. We didn’t know.

This approach is best because it requires precisely zero self-awareness. The lack of self-reflection frees these minds to respond similarly in the future. When called upon to act in absurd ways again, they will. An election looms, after all, and evangelists are required.

Why has Newsome chosen to expend this political energy now?

He needs to consolidate his political base. Inflation has hit everyone’s wallet equally. The Saigon-like withdrawal from Afghanistan was a humiliation. Roe vs. Wade and the student debt forgiveness program were overturned. The COVID behaviors are now openly mocked and scorned.

Newsome’s Absolution is therefore a strategically placed strike into the hearts of his followers. Its intention is not repentance. It is not to ask for forgiveness. It is not an exclamation of personal or spiritual growth. You will note that all of those words are conspicuously missing. Rather, what is present is a declaration of collective ignorance, the shifting of blame off of the individual onto the group, and the intention to move on.

It is a brilliant political move from a politician who is highly likely to be a presidential candidate. Any criticism of his COVID response can be deflected by a simple, “I did the best I could, with the best intentions. We didn’t know. We would do it differently now.”

How powerful is this concept? Every person who dutifully donned a mask and shunned their friends acted with the best of intentions. They obviously did not know how pointless it all was. If they harbored any doubts at all as to their own behavior, the same political leaders they follow also expressing the same doubts they currently feel will be a powerful elixir.

Unable to break out of the cycle, their energies will again be directed in a way that is not expressly of their choosing. The last three years of their passionate fury directed at irradicating a virus will be immediately forgotten in favor of a passionate fury directed towards their political rivals.

Unable to break out of the cycle, they will witness the world they’ve built around them slowly deteriorate, but do nothing about it. Shoplifting is no longer a crime. Employees who try to prevent theft are fired. National chains shutter their stores in major metropolises. Stores that remain open lock their products behind cabinets. Open air drug markets plague cities like Portland and Philadelphia.

With the best of intentions, they will always be able to fall back on ignorance to absolve them. It was hardly I. We didn’t know.

A short, pithy, TV friendly statement meaning absolutely nothing; A perfect reduction of the tragedy of the last three years.