The Age of Impunity and the Discipline of 'Slow Looking'
“Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile” (Henry VI, part 3)
TO ACT with impunity is to act without fear of consequences. Like the future Richard III, we imagine that we can wound, deflect, distort — and carry on untouched. Ours is an age increasingly tempted by that fantasy.
Outrage now travels faster than reflection. Social media reward immediacy. News cycles feed on escalation. Algorithms amplify what is sharp and emotionally charged (whether true or not). Fear hums beneath it all — surfacing as suspicion, conspiracy, and a slow erosion of trust. Add power to that mix, and harm multiplies.
We see people behaving as though their actions had no impact: lashing out, blaming others, escalating conflict, or simply disconnecting from the hurt that they cause. Some of this is true impunity: power insulated from consequence. But some behaviour that looks like indifference is something else: it is dysregulation…
This article first appeared in the Church Times of 5 March 2026. To read the rest, you’re invited to visit their website - just click on the blue button. As always, I love to hear your thoughts and reactions, so please feel free to head back here to leave any comments below!
Excellent essay, especially this:
"A trauma lens does not nullify responsibility. But it shows why accountability requires steadiness — a steadiness that lets us truly register what is happening. Without regulation, we risk skimming past impact, anaesthetised from the consequences.
I first saw this in a jury room. For days, we listened to evidence of a violent crime. The defendant had lived for a time as if consequences did not apply. When the verdict was delivered and the judge said, “You go down,” there was a palpable exhalation in the courtroom. This was not vindictiveness: it was relief. A boundary had held, and reality had reasserted itself. Saying “no” to harm — calmly and lawfully — restored moral weight to the room."
It follows well on the point I made last week in my own struggle against a kind of weaponized mandate of "forgive and forget," here: https://www.brunettegardens.com/p/when-forgiveness-fails