The Cost of Knowing

“To do harm you could not have foreseen is no sin - only the not-yet-knowing.” That sentence makes room for learning. It does not make harm small. It says the mistaken are not our enemy, and that new knowledge should change what we do.

But the next sentence is harder: “to see the good plainly and turn from it, for greed or for ease” is the wrong that marks us. I can hear the objection. What looks plain afterward may not have been plain at the time. Fear can narrow a person’s choices. Caution can be care, not cowardice.

Yes. We should be slow to claim another person knew. The chapter does not give us a license to read a stranger’s heart. It asks us to tell the difference between not knowing and not wanting to know. That is a question we can put to ourselves before we make excuses.

The Two Wrongs helps us release blame where learning was missing. It does not make every hard choice clear, or undo what happened. So be merciful to those who erred in the dark. And when the good becomes clear, do not turn away merely because it costs you.