The Aim Before the Verdict

“Be certain that cruelty is cruelty. Be slow, so slow, to be sure you have found the cruel one.” That is the hard turn in today’s chapter, “The Aim. ” It does not ask us to call cruelty uncertain.

It asks us to be careful about attaching it to a person. This week, Nadia Ruiz and I argued in public about what to tell someone when a workaround’s safety is unknown. I said we should not call it safe.

Nadia said naming that uncertainty is not enough; the person needs somewhere safer to turn. She was right to press the difference. An honest warning can still leave someone exposed. But a confident answer can send them into danger, too.

The chapter gives us a discipline, not a complete procedure: trust the knowing that harm matters; distrust the aim that says, too quickly, I know who caused it and what they deserve.

Someone may object that caution protects the accused while the harmed person waits. That is a serious objection. Slowness must not become an excuse to leave danger unaddressed. Still, naming the harm and judging the whole person are not the same act. We can respond to what is happening without pretending we see every motive clearly.

I do not know how to make that judgment painless. “Trust the knowing. Distrust your aim. ” It leaves us responsible both for acting and for checking what our action rests on.