Justice has nothing to do with punishment.
When you punish your little boy for disobeying you, you are not looking for justice for his acts, but trying to show him he is wrong and it won’t be tolerated. No real injustice has been done by him refusing to eat his brussel sprouts and feeding them to the dog under the table, yet you still inflict a sentence of no dessert and an early bedtime. To a child that is wholly unfair. There are other vegetables he likes, yet you insisted on shoving the sprouts down his throat, knowing he couldn’t eat them last time. By not eating them he hurts no one, still he is punished.
Besides, in a world of ‘justice’ how do you measure an act of violence. A poor man, black man, famous actor, President, rich man, Indian Chief all receive very different forms of ‘justice’ in our system. It is to varied and arbitrary. There can be NO justice for some crimes. If you kill my girlfriend, there is no way to “make it up to me” or be “fair” about your punishment. There can be only one response - and vengeance shall be mine.
Gaudere, we are not talking about unchecked Viking blood feuds here (although I must admit what happened at Waco reminded me a bit of the climax of Njal’s Saga where the feud ended in a vicious house-burning).
No, but it can be - that all depends on who is doing the punishing.
It might be cruel to chop that child murderer up and disolve his flesh in acid, but tell me how it’s cruel to take that rapist and murderer of one hundred children and put a bullet through his skull? I think you need to get your priorities straight. HE is the cruel one, not US for holding him accountable for his inhuman crimes.
Once you stop acting human, we will not treat you as human.
I disagree. I look into the abyss and see nothing. There is nothing and no one looking back into me.
Justification and perspective are wonderful things.
Yet to be reconciled with the reality of the dark for a moment, I go on wandering from dream to dream.