There’s not much closure here because I do not know where any of these people are now, and I don’t care to look.
At school, if you don’t count the bullies, probably the kid who thought it was amusing to take rabbits apart after hunting them. I have another story in my head about something awful that happened to a cat which may also have been him, now that I think about it. He had an odd monotone to his voice and a dead look in his eyes, like he was elsewhere or sleeping and something else was running the show. He didn’t seem all that terrifying either, which is probably worse.
There was at least one teacher who I’m pretty sure had far-right leanings, with a couple of glaring red flags, but I didn’t notice until I was much older.
Then, in an echo of that, there was the smug CEO of the company that bought the one I was working for, who came up with the magical slogan “One company, one workforce, one leader”. I’m surprised he didn’t throw in a “Work sets you free” along with it. (This was in the early '00s, and is almost certainly not known to anyone reading this.)
But as far as shitty behaviour goes, I can’t count myself as completely innocent. There are many things I’ve done, that I won’t go into, where my conscience has since reasserted itself (or ignorance lost, or both) and I cringe pretty much every day. I can only hope the people on the receiving end are doing great and aren’t too badly affected by it.
It’s for this reason I’d hope that each of the above, and a lot more people besides, would have their consciences do the same thing.
There’s not much closure here because I do not know where any of these people are now, and I don’t care to look.
At school, if you don’t count the bullies, probably the kid who thought it was amusing to take rabbits apart after hunting them. I have another story in my head about something awful that happened to a cat which may also have been him, now that I think about it. He had an odd monotone to his voice and a dead look in his eyes, like he was elsewhere or sleeping and something else was running the show. He didn’t seem all that terrifying either, which is probably worse.
There was at least one teacher who I’m pretty sure had far-right leanings, with a couple of glaring red flags, but I didn’t notice until I was much older.
Then, in an echo of that, there was the smug CEO of the company that bought the one I was working for, who came up with the magical slogan “One company, one workforce, one leader”. I’m surprised he didn’t throw in a “Work sets you free” along with it. (This was in the early '00s, and is almost certainly not known to anyone reading this.)
But as far as shitty behaviour goes, I can’t count myself as completely innocent. There are many things I’ve done, that I won’t go into, where my conscience has since reasserted itself (or ignorance lost, or both) and I cringe pretty much every day. I can only hope the people on the receiving end are doing great and aren’t too badly affected by it.
It’s for this reason I’d hope that each of the above, and a lot more people besides, would have their consciences do the same thing.