A specter is haunting the West: the specter of its own historical guilt. A sense of unexpiated and unrelievable past wrongs cripples nations and their governments, depriving them of the resolution to take action, wield power, keep their defenses up, or even possess arms. There is serious talk about returning some parts of the United States to the Indians; there is a compulsive urge to compensate blacks now for the wrongs inflicted on their forebears; the slightest mention of “imperialism” sends us cringing into a neutral corner. Curiously enough, those who experience this sense of guilt are mostly people who in general deny the concept of sin and even doubt the notion of evil. Be that as it may. The inhibitions here mentioned are so real that a rather timid mention of potential war over the West’s “tribute to King Faisal” has resulted in incredulous and indignant expostulations by those who provoked the West in the first place.
Guilt and Redress
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