Saturday Essay Muhammad Ali’s documentary recalls a time when it was possible to apologize and forgive – Now the war in Ukraine makes us think about a strategy of selective forgiveness

Ken Burnsin Muhammad Ali document can be found Yle Arena and it is worth looking, like other documents from the director and his team on the Vietnam War To the life of Ernest Hemingway.

The Ali documentary also makes us think about the different laws of apology and forgiveness in the public sphere in different situations.

This paper goes through three examples at a rapid pace. The background would, of course, be the reflection on ethics and religions from different centuries.

Appreciative The Ali documentary also records the sins of a boxer.

Young Ali rushed to segregation and demanded separate states for blacks and whites.

He declared his former friend Malcom X: n after the assassination of the leader of the Nation of Islam Elijah Muhammad all opponents “must die”.

He intimidated his toughest opponent with insults that went beyond his usual threat Joe Frazieria towards. She lived a Dual Life as a pious Muslim and an insatiable female hunter.

Sins are atoned for the eighth part in the final climax. Old Ali pondered the relationship between the evil and the good deeds of his life. He sought to reconcile his evil deeds with both deeds and public apologies.

He apologized for his harsh words after Malcolm X’s death. He apologized for his unfair words to Joe Frazier, who was never a white lawyer let alone “Uncle Judge”.

“I adapted my religion to my own needs. I did wrong and chased women. Now I do my best to please God, ”Ali added.

The ecumenical perception had also strengthened. If you treat others well, get to heaven, whatever the religion, Ali reasoned.

Sincere repentance still worked then. And when Ali, who trembled with Parkinson’s disease, lit an Olympic flame in Atlanta in 1996, his public image changed forever.

“The sport we had asked him to entertain ourselves had made him sick,” commented the sports reporter Dave Kindred. “We felt sympathy and guilt. We wanted to hug him and apologize to him. ”

Editor-in-Chief and New Biographer of New Yorker Dave Remnick finds the widespread appreciation of the old Ali even surprising. In the past, large crowds had considered Alia to be roughly the antichrist.

“So people can evolve,” Remnick concludes.

Second the example comes from a different world, from 2021. Back then, the headlines included “cultural wars,” which brought about a lot of good but also escalating confrontation. It was added by the “social media” algorithms, which emphasize the visibility of the most exciting and thus the most discussed material.

Non-fiction writer and journalist Anne Applebaum wrote last August even of the new Puritanswho, instead of forgiveness, wanted to “cleanse and punish”. Even sincere repentance was no longer enough, as the apology was only additional proof to them of the need for “cleansing”.

But even when apologies are turned against petitioners, there may be a risk that apologies will no longer be sought. And those humiliated by a self-conscious elite can accumulate a desire for revenge, which has been exploited by many unscrupulous populist leaders in various countries.

If actual or alleged humiliation is still perceived as national and combined with imperialist threat, terrible things can happen, such as Vladimir Putin We know about the great attack on Russia.

Where from the present moment and the war in Ukraine.

A major attack and war crimes can never be forgiven by the Russian leadership. But to what extent should measures be specified for other individuals solely on the basis of their nationality, and is it in line with Western legal understanding?

Articles in favor of and against, for example, the Sibelius Violin Competition have already been discussed in the articles of the HS Cultural Editorial. excluded Russian students and the treatment of a Russian director who had been detained for a long time and had now fled Moscow Kirill Serebrennikov boycott requirements.

“Sanctions against Russia are justified and need to be tightened. At the same time, boycotting an individual solely because of Russian citizenship does not make sense. It is a different matter if the individual represents, for example, a Russian state institution. And of course the border crossing is challenging, ”says the professor of philosophy of religion at the University of Helsinki. Sami Pihlström.

Professor of Social Ethics Jaana Hallamaa also understands that sanctions are targeted at innocent individuals.

“Russia has shit on everything, and there are no solutions left that are morally pure,” he estimates.

“The purpose of the sanctions is for people in Russia to reach their full potential, overcome their fears and turn against those in power, as difficult as it is.”

Yet there remains the possibility of strategic forgiveness and the selective easing of boycotts of Russians condemning the war.

For example, soprano Anna Netrebko is certainly not a moral force like the old Muhammad Ali, but a political actor who gave a million rubles in 2014 to the Donetsk Opera in the separatist region of eastern Ukraine. The money was received by the then separatist leader as the separatist flag fluttered on stage. Netrebko claimed that he understood only that he was assisting the cultural institution.

We move to the spring of 2022. “I clearly condemn the war against Ukraine,” Netrebko, who has moved west, also declares and emphasizes that he is not an “ally of any Russian leader”.

The West, of course, is not as keen on forgiveness as it is Biblical the father of the prodigal son parable. There is also no huge urgency, as it is a million times more urgent to help Ukraine.

Director of the New York Metropolitan Opera Peter Gelb has stated that it expects Netrebko to show complete disengagement from Putin in the “long term” before a return is negotiated.

In part, however, Netrebko seems to have been forgiven, as the calendar again features concerts at La Scala in Milan and the Philharmonie in Paris, for example.

Netrebkon there is something disgusting about gradual rehabilitation, but gradual forgiveness can yield strategic benefits even if repentance is fraudulent.

Indeed, the path of selective forgiveness can also lead other influential Russians who have previously succumbed to Putinism to condemn the attack and thus Putin himself. It should preferably happen without the booze that Netrebko puts into some proverbs still included.

“Strategic, selective boycott and forgiveness are possible,” says Professor Hallamaa.

Of course, this solution is not morally problematic either.

“In any case, there are individuals who suffer injustice. When we embark on the path of violence, it always happens. ”