If your best friend was swept up by a giant wave, would you blame yourself? Why or why not? “The Seventh Man”, by Haruki Murakami, holds a story of an incident similar to this. The seventh man was caught in a typhoon. When the eye of the storm passed, he decided to go down to the beach with his best friend, K. A huge wave swept up to shore. The seventh man ran, but K. didn’t see the wave. At least, not until it was too late. K. was swept out to sea, and the seventh man lived. Should he have forgave himself for this? The answer is simple. Yes, he should have forgave himself, for he was overcome by fear, and it was K.’s decision to go down to the beach with him. First of all, the seventh man couldn’t have saved K. He had been overcome with
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Thinking the seventh man shouldn’t forgive himself is like throwing him under the bus, in a way. He felt survivor guilt, and by saying that, you’re saying he should never let go of his survivor guilt. That would throw him into a downward spiral into madness. Yes, it is healthy to feel survivor guilt. However, one must learn to forgive oneself in order to achieve full moral repair. An excerpt from “The Moral Logic of Survivor Guilt”, by Nancy Sherman, may aid in explaining this better: “In all this we might say guilt, subjective guilt, has a redemptive side. It is a way that soldiers impose moral order on the chaos and awful randomness of war’s violence. It is a way they humanize war for themselves, for their buddies, and for us as civilians, too”(Sherman 156). This quote basically says feeling survivor guilt is healthy, as long as it is reasonable. As in, you can’t feel survivor guilt when you step on a flower. That is just completely unreasonable. Websites also assist in explaining certain topics.. So, I’ve consulted a website, as well: “It's essential that someone suffering from survivor's guilt acknowledge that they are suffering. Survivor's guilt can affect daily life and job performance, so it's important to find ways to cope with this psychological problem so that it does not worsen”(http://mentalhealthcenter.org/how-to-deal-with-survivors-guilt/). This expands on the fact that if he did not forgive himself, he would, in fact, spiral downward into madness. You know this is true because it did not come from Wikipedia. You feel bad now? Good, you should. I don’t think he would want to descend into insanity. No one wants
Thinking the seventh man shouldn’t forgive himself is like throwing him under the bus, in a way. He felt survivor guilt, and by saying that, you’re saying he should never let go of his survivor guilt. That would throw him into a downward spiral into madness. Yes, it is healthy to feel survivor guilt. However, one must learn to forgive oneself in order to achieve full moral repair. An excerpt from “The Moral Logic of Survivor Guilt”, by Nancy Sherman, may aid in explaining this better: “In all this we might say guilt, subjective guilt, has a redemptive side. It is a way that soldiers impose moral order on the chaos and awful randomness of war’s violence. It is a way they humanize war for themselves, for their buddies, and for us as civilians, too”(Sherman 156). This quote basically says feeling survivor guilt is healthy, as long as it is reasonable. As in, you can’t feel survivor guilt when you step on a flower. That is just completely unreasonable. Websites also assist in explaining certain topics.. So, I’ve consulted a website, as well: “It's essential that someone suffering from survivor's guilt acknowledge that they are suffering. Survivor's guilt can affect daily life and job performance, so it's important to find ways to cope with this psychological problem so that it does not worsen”(http://mentalhealthcenter.org/how-to-deal-with-survivors-guilt/). This expands on the fact that if he did not forgive himself, he would, in fact, spiral downward into madness. You know this is true because it did not come from Wikipedia. You feel bad now? Good, you should. I don’t think he would want to descend into insanity. No one wants