What new information could there have possibly been for Seneca, in 62 AD, when he finally broke with Nero? Nero had been deranged for years (as detailed in James Romm’s excellent book Dying Every Day). He had been blood thirsty for years, unfit for leadership since almost the beginning. Seneca knew better from the beginning–the man was a philosopher and historian and could not have been deceived for long.

We can sit here and judge. We can shake our heads in bafflement. But we really shouldn’t. The fact that Seneca eventually worked up the courage to participate in the Piso Conspiracy to unseat his former boss shouldn’t be dismissed as “too little too late” because later is better than never.

Because not everyone did come around. In fact, most people never do–then or now. When we are wrong, when we’ve had our blinders on, when we’ve been implicated in something, even complicit in it, it’s so terribly, terribly hard to change our minds. It is hard to admit error, harder still to admit guilt, and the hardest to take steps to rectify it.

Instead of condemning those who have the fortitude, the awareness, the conscience (or even the desperate motivation of last-minute self-preservation), we should celebrate it. We should make soft landings for them, so as to encourage future folks. We should, as Marcus Aurelius tried to do, forgive. We should sympathize and realize how easily we could be in their position. We should take note of their example and make sure we are learning from it in our own lives.

Judgment is easy. Changing is hard–hard enough that late is still better than never.