It’s how the adulterer looks himself in the mirror, how the victim moves on from his trauma, how we as a country - how “we the people” - reconcile within ourselves a past we aren’t necessarily ready or willing to reconcile with publicly. Our capacity to rationalize is how we get up in the morning.
It’s human nature, or as close to an understanding thereof that I can muster. To paraphrase Joan Didion’s “The White Album,” our minds find ways to make sense of the nonsensical, not merely as stories but in order to move forward. Never underestimate people’s ability to rationalize.
