In reaction to the often compromising pictures that might appear on social networks like Facebook, the European Union is reported to enshrine “a right to be forgotten on line.” According to a recent article in the Guardian, Viviane Reding, in a speech before the European Parliament, is said to advocate a policy that would protect people from having embarrassing photos of them posted on line. Reding’s view is not original or unique. It was Honore de Balzac once wrote that “Life cannot go on without much forgetting.” There are just some things that should neither be recalled nor allowed to be recalled. The European Union would only be acting on what Balzac already held to be true. Indeed, Rabbi Saul Teplitz once observed that life would be unbearable if we were not blessed with what a clever young man once called “a good forgettery.”
