2) About redemption. Mrs. DDB asked me today whether I think a person can make amends for doing something horrible one time. I do believe in redemption and second chances. But for something like rape? Well, you need a life of good works just to try to get back to something approximating even, if that. You don't get to be glorified like a saint or have your number retired. You work your ass off just to rejoin the ranks of normal human being, if that. And it's not a zero sum game. None of it changes that you did something really fucking awful. It's two tracks. One one, you did something horrible that you own forever. On another, you did something good.
I think it's hard to truly be redeemed if the sinner is not suitably punished for their sins. Most humans have an idea of crime and punishment that is pretty simple. You do the crime, you do the time...and then we talk. If we think a person has not done the time, but we think they did the crime...we won't be able to accept that the 'sinner' is redeemed or on the road to redemption. There's something of the zero sum in this.
The big problem with me seeing Kobe's life in terms of a redemption arc is he did no time. The privileged have access to better legal defence, public relations teams and the support of those they help feed - not just their family, i mean the industry/profession they are part of and the industries that feed off their labour, high profile and brand. The last thing they want is for a cash cow to go down.
Kobe didn't get convicted, he didn't stand trial - so he had no time to do. So in the binary zero sum the redemption we here do not grant him is because we here read, we delve and we require more information before we make out judgements. We apply more scrutiny than the average person who is perhaps not so drawn towards finding, or getting as close as possible to the (often elusive) truth of a situation. And, it is a sad mark of our times that we move on fast to the next thing, the next sound bite or narrative or scandal...we get swept along going from one story to the next, most of the time never really knowing the truth, but knowing enough to feel invested, opinionated...until the next thing and so it goes.
There are more column inches of late devoted to Harry and Meghan than there has been to Prince Andrew. It recently came out that the Palace has refused to allow details of the whereabouts of Andrew's security staff on the night it is alleged he was having sex with a teenager, he said he was at Pizza Express in Woking. (Think Olive Garden but with pizza and cheaper. Exactly.) So far no one has corroborated his story. Guess what...more people are concerned with Harry and Meghan turning their back on Englandshire, cos that's the splash. Or it was, we moved on.
We say Kobe rapist. I say Kobe rapist. The law and his record says otherwise. We say he admitted it, but we read his attorney's statement, and we know that his words are not a bona fide admission of guilt. They are the words of a man filtered through a highly paid legal team, who knew he'd not be facing trial. It's PR. (Kevin Spacey made a statement a couple of years ago that was similar in tone.) The vast majority, the great general public, helped along by the media and the court of public opinion that is driven by the media, say he's not a rapist, or nothing at all other than legend, great sportsman, pillar of the community...as such no redemption is required (for them). But that doesn't work for us...at least not for me.