According to the Cambridge Dictionary, something is overrated when “considered to be better than it is.” The dictionary gives an example of a person who sees an award-winning movie and decides it is not so great. In the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, to be overrated is to be valued too highly. Two synonyms for overrated at thesaurus.com are “exaggerated” and “overpriced.” Recently, the New York Times (Caron, 2024) published an article with the intriguing title, Sometimes, Forgiveness Is Overrated. The purpose of this post is to philosophically examine the content of that essay in the New York Times to see if the accusation of “overrated” is accurate or—well—overrated.
Let us examine four points in the essay.
Nowhere in the essay is a clear distinction between forgiveness as overrated and the advice given as overrated. The author states that an encouraging new movement is underway in which writers are "erasing the pressure" to forgive. Let us take an analogy of playing the sport of basketball. If an overbearing coach pressures middle school children to practice and practice to the point of wearing themselves out, is this the fault of basketball itself or the coach’s intemperate advice?
It seems that basketball itself is innocent of all charges because the sport remains what it is regardless of how seriously or nonchalantly the adult leaders take it. This lack of distinction is a crucial point within forgiveness. Is it the fault of forgiveness itself if some people put pressure on others to forgive? The answer seems to be no because the people........