Review: Connor C. O'Brian: The Guarded Palace

“The first thing to feel clear about is that we do have a lot to feel guilty about. The second is that most of the guilt is inseparable from our condition.”

In The Guarded Palace, Conor C. O’Brien reflects on the moral and psychological condition of Western civilisation. Central to my prompth is the notion that the Western world is burdened by a deep, inescapable sense of guilt—a sentiment that stems not from individual failings alone, but from the very structure and history of its global position. As he writes, “The first thing to feel clear about is that we do have a lot to feel guilty about. The second is that most of the guilt is inseparable from our condition” (p. 28). Here, O’Brien introduces guilt not merely as an emotional reaction but as a structural feature of Western identity. Therefore, in this humble essay, I will present my commentary in three parts. First, I will explain the meaning of the prompted quote. Second, I will analyze the quote and its context. Third, I will provide current-life association to the idea addressed by The Guarded Palace.

The Quote Explanation: Specifically, the guilt stems from the preconditions of the Western civilization, and therefore, it is not removable, but manageable. According to O’Brien, it is intrinsically linked to the foundations of Western comfort and privilege. It is the result of centuries of economic and political decisions that have often depended on the exclusion and exploitation of others:“We know, if we are honest with ourselves, that it is for our own sakes, not for theirs, that we are keeping all these people out. Of course there is a remedy for that knowledge, which is not to be honest with ourselves. Yet this remedy for guilt has a disastrous side effect, since it erodes the intellect” (p. 29). In this passage, O’Brien draws attention to the psychological mechanisms—such as denial or self-deception—that Western societies often employ to manage the discomfort of complicity. However, he warns that this form of intellectual evasion comes at the cost of critical thought and moral clarity. Moreover, O’Brien suggests that the suppression of guilt does not eliminate its effects. On the contrary, it manifests as a collective unwillingness to confront reality—a widespread moral and psychological denial. To counteract this, he calls for a rigorous process of self-examination: “We need to dig up that buried guilt of ours and ascertain its extent and its limits. We need to find out how much there is that we can do something about, and how much that we can do nothing to remove. Then we need to get on with sound what we can do, and get on also with living with conscious acceptance of that degree of guilt which is inseparable from our condition as the kind of people we are, in the kind of world we happen to live in. Conscious acceptance: we must rigorously deny ourselves the poisonous comfort of illusion, or we shall degenerate below the level of homo sapiens at some point in the course of the third millennium” (p. 28). Critique: To begin with, the appeal for “conscious acceptance” of guilt echoes the philosophical tradition of moral responsibility and historical awareness. Moreover, O’Brien refers to George Santayana (1905), who is famous for the quote: “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (). Even though O’Brien chose another quote of Santayana: “a mind without scope and without pause” (p. 27), contextually, the message stays the same—the consciousness plays a crucial role in remembering, and subsequently, in acting ethically. O’Brien's analysis extends to the domain of foreign policy, where he critiques the self-perception of Western—particularly American—moral leadership on the global stage. He identifies what he considers a paradox within the U.S. approach: a claim to ethical motivation that can sometimes mask or justify self-interested actions. He writes, “Americans like to think of their countries as ethically motivated, unlike the countries of the Old World, which are motivated by realpolitik. This ethically ambitious posture has had some large benign effects, as in the abolition of slavery in the nineteenth century, and the abolition of institutions of racial oppression in the twentieth. Yet the assumption of ethical superiority can also have extremely deleterious effects, especially in the field of foreign policy. It can lead to the ingestion of dangerously large doses of hypocrisy and cultivated inattention. It has led, and very recently, to the general acceptance, at face value, of Operation Restore Democracy” (p. 29). In this example, O’Brien alludes to the Clinton administration’s intervention in Haiti under the banner of Operation Restore Democracy. Although he does not elaborate in detail, his critique suggests that the intervention, while framed as an ethical imperative, may have operated under questionable or contradictory motives. This undermines the credibility of the proclaimed moral stance and reveals the extent to which rhetoric can obscure reality. Ultimately, O’Brien argues for an ethic of solidarity among Western nations—one that transcends cynicism and acknowledges shared responsibility. He writes, “In the inter-relations of Western countries, solidarity should genuinely take precedence over reservations and cynical interpretations. We are all in the same boat even if – or rather, especially as – we have reason to feel uneasy about the ways in which our boat has to be kept afloat” (p. 32). This statement serves both as a moral appeal and a warning. The metaphor of the boat invokes a shared fate, one that necessitates mutual accountability and honesty rather than illusion and denial. Current-Life Association: In this section, I would like to draw attention to the found ongoing acts of genocide in Palestine, highlighting the stark discrepancy between the dominant narratives promoted within the nations of The Guarded Palace and the actual scale and gravity of the crimes committed (Amensty International, 2024; International Court of Justice, 2024), often with the tacit approval or complicity of the Western powers (see References). Within the framework of the international humanitarian law, the State of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is recognized as an ongoing armed conflict of a non-international character. The International Court of Justice (ICC) on 19 July 2024 gave its Advisory Opinion in respect of the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. Notably, among the conclusions of the ICJ was that Israel's continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) is unlawful and that Israel is under an obligation to end its presence in the OPT immediately. Moreover, in their report ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, the internationally recognized human rights organisation Amnesty International on 5 December 2024 concluded that Israel has been committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Conclusion

O’Brien’s reflections cchallenges the Western conscience. He asks not for a rejection of the West's achievements, but for a sober recognition of the costs at which they have been attained. Through an ethic of remembrance, responsibility, and solidarity, he envisions a more intellectually honest and morally sustainable path forward.

Sources: Amnesty International. (2024). ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza. https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/8668/2024/en/ International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). (1949). Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (Fourth Geneva Convention), 75 UNTS 287. Retrieved 13 December 2025, from https://www.refworld.org/legal/agreements/icrc/1949/en/32227. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). (n.d.). The Geneva conventions and their commentaries. Retrieved December 13, 2024, from https://www.icrc.org/en/law- and-policy/geneva-conventions-and-their-commentaries International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). (2010). Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949. Retrieved 13 December 2025, from https://www.icrc.org/sites/default/files/external/doc/en/assets/files/other/icrc_002_0321.p df International Court of justice. (2024). Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, Press release 2024/57. https://www.icj-cij.org/case/186 Santayana, G. (1905). Reason in common sense, Introduction and reason in common sense, based on the text originally published in 1905, Scribner’s, 1905, p. 284. The Santayana Edition, Institute for American Thought, Indiana University. [Retrieved from:] https://santayana.iupui.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Common-Sense-ebook.pdf O’Brien, C. C. (1994). The guarded palace. On the Eve of the Millenium, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation a House of Annansi Press, Concord, Ontario. [Class material.]

References: https://dennikn.sk/minuta/4491079/ https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/02/05/trump-indicates-intent-escalate-ethnic-cleansing-gaza https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/02/israel-opt-president-trumps-claim-that-us-will- take-over-gaza-and-forcibly-deport-palestinians-appalling-and-unlawful/