Some Ideas Are Almost Universal

On the role of regret
A lot of people, their regret is kind of hedged with justification or with a continued commitment to the cause that they were fighting for. A lot of the [Irish Republican Army] guys will say, "I don't regret being in the IRA; I think our aims were correct. But I regret some of the things that happened. I regret some of the things that we did.".  This is from NPR and a story about the troubles.

Amazingly, these thoughts on the role of regret seem to roll around in a lot of thinking on an awful lot of topics.  I wonder if the regret is for what was or what was not accomplished. It is difficult to not have a life where regret does not take some place in our thinking.

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