“As many elements of tragedy as of villainy” does not put more emphasis on on tragedy, it puts equal amounts on both. You changed your mind and that’s perfectly fine. Just own it.
You keep throwing out a failure of character without equivocating, but can’t support that point. That’s a big statement about someone who exemplified character for many decades. A statement like that is much different than saying a mistake was made, and it warrants support. It’s not black and white, but you state that as if it is. Typical.
As to your Northwestern point, many of us here are fully capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time.
I haven't changed my mind on any of this since the beginning. Well, almost the beginning.
But OK, regarding “character flaw,” who among us does not have them? Who is not guilty of failures of judgment and character over the course of their lives? Most times, thank God, they don’t rise up to destroy a person's life, but it can happen. Even to a good man. It did with Joe. Thus the tragedy.
There is within all of us a powerful psychological impulse called "denial" that can be triggered when we encounter things that are uniquely awful and painful. Especially when to confront those things openly might well bring some serious difficulties into our own lives.
Sexual abuse can be one of those awful things. It’s damn near the top of the list. And therefore, this psychology of denial sometimes plays out within whole families, organizations, institutions, churches and so forth.
You become aware of something, you’re told a story, you see something questionable, whatever. But the facts and circumstances may be ambiguous or inconclusive. There could be different ways of interpreting them. So you rationalize. You give the benefit of the doubt. You find an excuse, and it may even be a valid excuse, NOT to act.
Then a month later, or a year, or two years, something else happens. Another story maybe. Another suspicion. Another concern. As in the first case, it may not be conclusive. But now, having not acted the first time, there is a certain internal motivation not to act again. Because to act might leave you open to the charge, even if unfair, that you were previously negligent.
At some point, you
prefer not to know, not to see, to avoid being in situations where you might see. Because let’s face it, by now, having already not acted one or more times, you may at some level decide it would be better if you did not know.
None of this is the product of an evil mind. It’s a function of human nature. Denial is one of the most common coping mechanisms in psychology. It’s why people sometimes can not or will not see what is in front of their eyes – whether it be sexual abuse or the failure of a man they’ve rightly revered for much of their lives.
