Taking delight in the demise of an evil person

[Zoe]

Wasn’t one of those quotes from Thomas Gray? I could be mistaken. My brain is jelly.

Thanks for your good wishes, kaylasdad99! The same to you.

And to you, Tuckerfan.

But could an ancient Greek recognize that a person sitting down at a keyboard, typing away, was working? Ever read Plato’s Cave? Eventually a person from the past would be able to grasp what was going on, but not right away and not easily.

Yes, I’ve read Plato’s The Cave. What I think an ancient Greek would have no trouble recognizing are things such as sorrow, joy, love, pain, death, mourning, celebrations of life – much more at the core of being human. It is what we have in common with Plato that allow us to understand and value what he wrote.

I’m going to go now and read your link to a time of great anger. Maybe it will help me to understand better.

[Zoe]

Tuckerfan, I think I do understand a little better now. Your heart is not cold or hardened at all unless you have changed a lot since that thread. Don’t let it happen; don’t let it ruin that part of you.

From something that was said in that thread, I gather we live in the same city. I send good thoughts.

[kaylasdad99]

*Originally posted by Tuckerfan *
Remember what Thomas Swift said about liking Man, but not mankind?

Ah, yes, the great Thomas Swift:

“I love mankind; It’s people I can’t stand,” he said, misanthropically

Tee hee.

[Tuckerfan]

*Originally posted by Zoe *
**Wasn’t one of those quotes from Thomas Gray? I could be mistaken. My brain is jelly.

Thanks for your good wishes, kaylasdad99! The same to you.

And to you, Tuckerfan.

Yes, I’ve read Plato’s The Cave. What I think an ancient Greek would have no trouble recognizing are things such as sorrow, joy, love, pain, death, mourning, celebrations of life – much more at the core of being human. It is what we have in common with Plato that allow us to understand and value what he wrote.**

What would Plato make of our anti-sodomy laws? And certainly the manner in which we express some of our emotions has changed since his time. Someone as intelligent as Plato no doubt could learn to understand our time and it’s quirks, but how about the average Greek?

Oh, and Zoe, ya think I’d put a lame-ass place like Gallatin in my location to be funny?

[kaylasdad99]

*Originally posted by Tuckerfan *
**Oh, and Zoe, ya think I’d put a lame-ass place like Gallatin in my location to be funny? **

I know you weren’t asking me, but I had to give it a try anyway. We’ll see how it works out. . .

[Mangetout]

*Originally posted by Tuckerfan *
**Indeed, the thread is about celebrating a violent, bloody ends of horrible people (which is quite often how they end their lives), but for me, how they die is of no consequence to me, I’m just glad they’re dead!

So, would it be acceptible to you, to rejoice in the death of a horrible person if they died in a peaceful manner? **

Fair enough; it may be that I have simply misunderstood the thrust of your point; No, I wouldn’t find it personally acceptable to rejoice in the death of a horrible person, regardless how they met their end; I may rejoice in the fact of their absence (or rather the fact that their horrible acts have ceased).

This may seem nothing more than a semantic distinction, however I believe there is more to it; looking at some “Yay! evil person X is dead” pit threads, it is clear that for some people, it wasn’t enough that evil person X is merely gone, they specifically wanted it to happen in an unpleasant way. It is this mindset that I find unsavoury.

[Tuckerfan]

*Originally posted by Mangetout *
**Fair enough; it may be that I have simply misunderstood the thrust of your point; No, I wouldn’t find it personally acceptable to rejoice in the death of a horrible person, regardless how they met their end; I may rejoice in the fact of their absence (or rather the fact that their horrible acts have ceased).

This may seem nothing more than a semantic distinction, however I believe there is more to it; looking at some “Yay! evil person X is dead” pit threads, it is clear that for some people, it wasn’t enough that evil person X is merely gone, they specifically wanted it to happen in an unpleasant way. It is this mindset that I find unsavoury. **

Unsavory, well, perhaps, but some folks might consider it poetic justice or the Biblical solution (“He who lives by the sword, shall die by the sword.”), or they might take some satisfaction in knowing that the person who had doled out so much suffering in their life got a taste of what it must have been like for their victims.

As I said, to me, it doesn’t matter, since the important matter is that they are no longer capable of inflicting harm on others. Exile might be more “humane,” but Napoleon (to name but one) was able to leave exile, retake power, and immediately begin his conquests all over again. The dead have no such ability.