Another rainy day, and the soreness in my throat eases slightly.
The cycle of irritation and coughing continues, softened only a little by a mask that can do no more than it already does.
This morning, a news story caught my attention — yet another reminder that restraint, once taken for granted, may no longer be working as it should.
A news report described a public prosecutor with a wife and children who pretended to be single on a dating app and was subsequently sued by the woman he deceived.
I recalled seeing similar stories not long ago. These incidents are likely only the tip of the iceberg.
I feel sympathy for the woman involved.
Because these interactions take place online, such behavior is technically possible.
Still, one would expect common sense or conscience to intervene and act as a brake.
Yet those internal restraints seem to have stopped functioning.
The same applies to the groups of teachers arrested last year for voyeuristic crimes.
When did society begin to look like this?
Imagination and fantasy are essential human capacities.
They have given rise to countless works of literature and driven the development of philosophy and many other fields.
Thinking, “I could do this, couldn’t I?” is not a crime in itself.
But once such thoughts are carried out in the real world — once they are directed physically toward another person — they become a crime.
Only ten years ago, before smartphones and apps became so sophisticated, carrying out such acts was physically extremely difficult.
Today, with a little ingenuity and ill-intended cleverness, they can be done all too easily.
Society cannot keep pace with technological progress quickly enough to suppress these acts — or rather, these crimes.
Of course, the removal of obstacles does not mean that anything is permissible.
Such behavior must be restrained, and ultimately, the only force capable of doing so is human conscience itself.
Yet in an age that values diversity, even the concept of conscience varies widely.
It cannot be uniformly defined, which makes the problem all the more difficult.
And it is certainly naïve to believe that saying “things were better in the past” offers any real solution.
