Forgivance, forgetting and the Constitution

While our life continues to change with the ebb and flow of time, each of us finds meaning in new and different ways, with some aspects of our identities being forgotten—much like dust in the wind. Friedrich Nietzsche, in his seminal work ‘On the Use and Abuse of History for Life’, emphasised the importance of forgetting as a fundamental component for achieving a fulfilling and meaningful life. Such a person no longer believes in his own being, no longer believes in himself…He will, like the true pupil of Heraclitus, finally hardly dare any more to lift his finger.” He believed that forgetting was more than just the act of getting rid of something; it was an important way for people to move on from past transgressions, making room for new opportunities. Nietzsche subscribed to the belief that a person who fails to forget is like a sheep that eats, rests and digests without knowing what yesterday or today is. After all, a man without the ability to forget, as Ireneo Funes from Jorge Luis Borges’s short story Funes the Memorious would remind us, is one who lives the past continuously and never the present, incapable of generalities and abstraction, destined to live an intolerable existence.