Today in class, you did a great job discussing the idea of justice, judgement, and sin, and the fact that in regards to these three ideas, guilt can be personal. I think we were moving towards the idea that guilt can also be defined differently: as Sarah asked, "Do you think someone has to feel guilty in order to be guilty?" I would even take this idea a step farther and ask you this: can an institution bear guilt? And again, I don't mean would/could it FEEL guilt - but could an institution be guilty because of its complicit role in any given situation? Respond to this question in the comment section.
P.S. I would encourage you to write this in a Google doc, then copy and paste it into the comments to avoid any mishaps with the Blog post. (Just speaking from experience!)
An institution can be guilty in its role because of what it may have caused from a result of what has been done. People in a society may not feel guilty, but to others they might. If there are enough people who feel and/or viewed as guilty, it could label the whole town, so society as a whole can be guilty.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that someone has to be guilty to feel guilty about something. You could walk by someone in the hallway and they dropped their books, and you just walk right past them. This isn't your fault that they dropped their books, but the morally right thing to do is to help them. In this situation you could feel guilty because that person could be late for their next class. Also an institution could bear guilt. Something tragic in an institution could happen and the institution could be blamed for not doing enough to protect the people inside institution. A "thing" or an object can bear the responsibility of guilt but they can't feel it because it's an inanimate object, it's not real.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that an institution as a whole can bear guilt. Even if it is just a small portion of the group is guilty I do not think that the entire group is technically guilty. The entire group may be punished for having a portion of it being guilty but that happens all the time with people being punished for being guilty when they a actually innocent. The same applies for if the majority of the group is guilty, the entire group will be punished but there still is the minority of the group that was still punished but was not guilty. So to answer the question I do not think that institutions can bear guilt.
ReplyDeleteYes, I do believe that an institution can bear guilt and here is why, an institution is an organization of religious, social, or a similar purpose. If we think about the south in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s they were very very racist. I believe once all of the equality acts came in place that specific group was guilty for what they did to African Americans(KKK). This is what I think about when an institution is guilty of something.
ReplyDeleteI think that an institution can bear guilt. I think that in the example of Hester and Dimmesdale the strict rules of the community led in part to the suffering that Hester and Dimmesdale went through. In Puritanical society, everyone is supposed to be perfect and that increases the guilt that Hester and Dimmesdale feel when they break these standards of perfection. Puritanical society is guilty of turning Dimmesdale into a man consumed by guilt and Hester a woman who has to be treated unfairly. In a society where adultery is not a crime Hester and Dimmesdale would not have suffered.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that an institution can bear guilt, but it cannot necessarily feel guilt. Just as criminals can be guilty in court institutions can be guilty of crime and wrong doing. for example the U.S Court justice system is guilty of sending 4% of innocent inmates to death row, this is not one person's fault, it is the fault of many people and the whole system. Another example being that Exxon and BP bear the guilt of having the two biggest oil spills in history and how each killed hundreds of thousands of animals and their natural habitats. In conclusion I do believe that institutions can be capable of bearing guilt.
ReplyDeleteI think that an institution could bear guilt in a certain situation. Take for example the government or the military in any country. If the government sends military to another country they may think it is to protect their own country, or to help another country. While some of these things may be good, sometimes they don’t always do it for the right reasons. Civilians are often times killed, massacres occur, and people’s homes are destroyed. The government who sent out their military to “protect their country” in certain cases are guilty of killing innocent people, and causing many people to leave their homes. They don’t feel guilty, because they think they did it for the right reasons, but often times they should be found guilty because sometimes they may harm more people than they help.
ReplyDelete-Maddie Abendroth
I do believe that an institution can be guilty. I feel like the community around Hester and the people around her were guilty. The community was very guilty because of their actions towards Hester and Pearl. First off, they were very judgemental towards Hester and they have no idea how it feels to be treated the way that they treated Hester. They were very harsh towards her and they didn’t even care how that might affect someone. Even though Hester did something wrong in the eyes of the people in the community, it was very wrong in my eyes for them to basically punish and shame Hester. Hester did do something wrong, but so did the community. I believe that the community is guilty because of their actions towards Hester.
ReplyDeletein·sti·tu·tion
ReplyDelete1.a society or organization founded for a religious, educational, social, or similar purpose.
"a certificate from a professional institution"
I feel that an institution can be guilty of any decision they have made or any role that they might have in a given situation. Keep in mind that institutions are made up of people could be many or few, the point is we are all gonna have to take a side on the conflict whether it be the right or wrong side (depending on your morals).So say an institution as a whole decides to pick up the fact that abortion is totally illegal and the it should be banned and the mothers are forced to have the child. This might be the wrong choice in that society as a whole want that call to be up to the mother, so people start to boycott that specific or multiple institutions. Thus causing that establishment to be guilty on that was the wrong side to pick.
One of the definitions of the word "guilty" is "having committed an offense, crime, violation, or wrong" (dictionary.com). In the first years of Hester's sentence, she was called names, and had rocks thrown at not only her, but Pearl too. Both these things in my eyes is a wrong, which also states that they are guilty. This institution bears the guilt of abusing Hester, and also little Pearl, who is a harmless and innocent child. Yes, I do believe that an institution can bear guilt.
ReplyDeleteThe institution can definitely bear guilt for a situation. I think it’s not as much about the people inside the institution, for its the institution itself that can bear the guilt. Not everyone within an establishment will agree with the beliefs of the group as a whole, but if the majority thinks a certain way, others may be inclined to “Go with the flow” and follow others, swaying the group.
ReplyDelete