We know how to deny sin. Most of us practice. But will he deny his innocence? Try it in court. The word appears everywhere: in headlines, in courtrooms, in campaign speeches. It’s not just a label, it’s a statement.
“Innocent” comes from the Latin innocent personmeans do no harm. Historically, being innocent also meant not knowing. We call children “innocent” not only because they are nice, but because they still know very little.
Innocence is more of a status than a trait, something given and revoked by those in power. This situation separates us. Who receives protection and who is considered a perpetrator is often determined based on poverty, minority status, or not fitting into the usual narrative.
This creates what is known as guilt and innocence. We come to terms with reality. We are not responsible if it is not our fault. Innocence becomes impunity and an excuse not to care. If something is not our fault, we think it’s not our problem. We find solace while others suffer.
We see this when ICE agents knock at dawn. The father is handcuffed. The children wake up screaming. they are innocent. That innocence is proof. Family is a crime.
The innocence of the unborn child is used to justify the state’s punishment of women. The child becomes an excuse. Mother, target. Even if the mother’s innocence is proven through expert testimony, this system will not change. It is up to the courts to decide what is important. Virtue is judged. The child is called. Everyone pays a price, but the poor pay first.
In such conflicts, anti-Trumpism can turn into a kind of impunity that prevents us from looking at ourselves. We forget the outrage that led to his election. He continues to set up his own doom, and the doom of his party as well. That way, the other person might be happy too. But beyond the daily drama and grim headlines, policy often looks the same as before. It is well known that approval ratings are unreliable.
The result is constant conflict, with both sides claiming innocence and blaming others. This exploitation of innocence turns morality into a show. Being clear about right and wrong is not the same as having conviction. The urge to appear blameless leads to political gridlock.
By claiming the moral high ground, we can avoid the difficult task of living with people with whom we disagree. A university minister and prominent activist has a different opinion: “We don’t love each other as much as we should. At least we’re all sinners and are immune from the possibility of separation in judgment.”
There is a similar story in Genesis. Before eating the fruit, both men and women are shamelessly naked. Then they see things differently. Knowledge brings work, responsibility, and exile. The “flaming sword” will keep them from turning back.
Progress is never without sin. Agriculture transformed land at high costs, and so did industrialization. Artificial intelligence is currently testing our ability to control what we create. Creation and destruction occur simultaneously. When politics uses guilt and innocence as labels, it ceases to seek justice and begins to cast people in roles such as victim, villain, or savior, while continuing inequality.
The alternative is a politics that begins with what we share, not with picking who deserves help. The main question is how to fix what we have in common.
Hemingway believes that all modern American literature huckleberry finn. Twain challenges the idea of innocence. Huck had learned the moral code of a slave-owning society, so he thought he was doing something wrong when he helped Jim escape.
“Okay, then I’m going to hell,” he said.
He doesn’t deny his guilt. Instead, he rejects innocence and accepts that his actions are guilty by the standards of the time. He chooses to follow his conscience rather than the comfort of being seen as pure.
Today, reformers and moralists often use the same shameful words they hate. Words like fascist, traitor, woke, and bigot are traded like weapons. Conviction turns into imitation. Competitiveness turns into transactional finger-pointing.
When you stop thinking about your role in things, right may seem wrong. We are all involved in a system that we neither chose nor rejected. The real question is not whether we are involved, but that we are. The question is, what do we do about it?
What principles would you risk going to hell for?Where would you break the rules you inherited before you questioned them?
The problem isn’t just about hacks. it’s ours.
notes and reading
A quiet American…Graham Greene (1955), pt. III, ch. 2. A novel of political naivety and moral complicity set in French-occupied Vietnam. How “innocence” brings real harm in early critiques of rising American hegemony.
new conscience and ancient evil–Jane Addams. Classic study of 1912. Morality is not about protecting one’s own “clean” reputation, but about forming a “new conscience” that recognizes our shared responsibility for social ills. Personal virtue cannot be judged apart from the world built around it.
Teams of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham LincolnDoris Kearns Goodwin (2005). Lincoln is a role model not only for a president but also for a nation. His rare ability to inhabit the motives and emotions of others has won him the respect of his rivals, allowing him to form a cabinet of former adversaries and use their talents to preserve the Federation and win the war.
spirit of liberalism―Harvey Mansfield (1978). Respected conservative political philosophers defend liberal principles to criticize contemporary liberals. “Liberalism, once the aggressive doctrine of an energetic and energetic people, has become nothing more than a tremor in the face of illiberalism,” Mansfield writes. “Can anyone today be called a liberal because of their strength and confidence in defending freedom?”
“Ezra Klein’s Weak Liberalism”Killet (February 24, 2026). A critique of Klein’s thinly veiled paean to Charlie Kirk. While acknowledging that division is inevitable in a free society, the article argues that Kirk has created more heat than light by privileging humiliation, siege mentality, and condemnation of citizens’ “cognitive tools” needed to resist conspiracism and extremism.
Solidarity: The past, present, and future of worldbuilding ideas—Leah Hunt-Hendricks & Astra Taylor (2024). Let’s move beyond the stalemate over who is “at fault” and move on to the work of building connections, of correcting facile narratives of unity and reconciliation.
“A mirror you don’t want to look into”—Halcroz Jenkins (January 28, 2026 – medium). “The real threat to democratic culture is not just the rise of populist leaders, but the rise of moral litmus tests that turn political disagreements into tests of virtue and reduce public debate to contests of emotional purity.”
Ramadan: Hard Stop Mercy
death cannot be controlled
Approximately 2+2=5
Source: 2 + 2 = 5 – williamgreen.substack.com
