Right and wrong
Interesting to read in the Mail and Guardian about “Colonial past haunts Britain again”, where 8800 files from 37 former colonies have been unearthed in Hanslope Park, and other UK National archive hideaways. More interesting might have been the ones they burned from 1961 on. At that time, a policy was put in place (it’s in the files) to burn and hide (destroy) some files from the former colonies, and to leave a select few (‘legacy’ files) to the new Independent countries.
Some of the hidden files have been found, and some of the information in them is quite damaging (that is why they were hidden), describing torture, murder, cover-ups and other ‘wrong’ activities by Her Majesty’s government.
Even regarding the standard rule of thumb, that you cannot judge the past, and activities from the past, by today’s standards of behaviour, we just know that some things are ‘wrong’, and would have been then. For example, the death of Captain Cook in Hawaii. Was he killed, or murdered? He certainly died, but was what he was doing wrong, or was what the islanders doing wrong, or was it all a big accident, a misunderstanding? Well, we cannot take Roman Dutch law in Zimbabwe today, or Royal Navy High seas doctrine now, or even USA law as currently practiced
All those basic matters aside though, the real point is that, 50 years after – over 50 years after – the activities took place, they are being revealed. And the perpetrators – who are guilty by standards in place at that time – are being found guilty and are paying.
How does that apply to today’s life? Simple. Don’t do anything wrong. You know what is wrong. It is inside you. It may also be currently written, but mostly it is known. “You know”. The only safe path is not to commit a crime or do anything ‘wrong’. A pardon (from the King/Queen/Head of State/Head of Government) will not help. Time will not wash it away. Your only defence is do what is right. And you know what is right, no one can tell you.