In 2011, we don’t really have a good idea what “flogging” entails. People are imagining some temporary pain and then being good to go a week later.
I’m more imagining losing all the skin and a good deal of flesh off your back and a non-trivial chance of death. Also, I’d like a detailed statistical breakdown of average healing time and permanent injuries. I’m guessing the break-even point is about 3 years in prison.
Just curious, why? Is it the pain of the beating and the lasting scars or is it the psychological stress of someone else taking control of you? (this is one of my rare serious questions)
Whether it’s right or not I equate physical punishment with retribution. If my victim equates a chunk of my flesh with a chunk of my life then I’ll give whichever hurts least. Flesh heals, age doesn’t. So beat me.
Plus I kinda dig pain anyway.
I would take the flogging as long as it was done professionally in a way that would not cause permanent damage.
I can’t even imagine how mad I would be at myself sitting in prison rotting away because I was too chicken to man up.
And I would choose jail if it didn’t restrict my freedom.
My view of flogging is more like Erdosain’s. I didn’t think the people who did floggings had any particular interest in keeping people alive. I think I’d be better off in prison. I am pretty good a keeping my head down and flying under the radar, and I imagine I could spend a lot of time reading. If we are just talking 5 strokes with a light cane by a disinterested professional, I would change my vote.
The OP later specified “Starship Troopers” style flogging. In the book, that means a doctor watches to ensure no permanent damage. The POV character gets 5 lashes and is back on duty the next day.
Depends on how serious a flogging it was. I’ve read enough horror stories about flogging, you can get very serious injuries (even internal injuries), and usually end up with large open wounds, which means you are prone to possible infections and will see bad scarring. I’m not a normal-sized person either, and I’d have to be reasonably certain they would tone down the force appropriately so they didn’t main or even kill someone as thin as I am. There’s very little to protect my vital organs from trauma.
Going into it without being sure that I wouldn’t be seriously injured I would choose prison regardless. That’s what I voted.
Flog away!
As a pain wimp, I remember as a child turning the corner on spankings/groundings. I used to cringe at the thought of being spanked and felt like I got off easy when all I got was some weenie punishment. Then one day I was like, dude fuck groundings. Bring the belt back! That’s five minutes of my life, then I can go back to playing Nintendo.
It’s not as if you’re going to be lying on the beach after your flogging, you’re more likely to be in the hospital. Or at least excruciating pain for several weeks. Consider http://www.twogreens.co.uk/wakeup/images/flogged.jpg . Isn’t that “time”?
Five lashes? I wouldn’t miss Saturday night for that.
If the time has to be served while Celtling is little, then almost any number of lashes over anything more than a weekend in jail.
If we suppose that she is off to college and doesn’t much need me, then if you went up to 15 or 20 lashes (to-the-bone level cutting there) then I’d probably take six months in jail over that.
Yeah, the answers in this thread have convinced me people don’t know what flogging is. Yes, some people would still choose it over prison, but they would be risking their lives and their long-term health to do so.
I like my kidneys and spine functioning, my skin in one piece, and my heart still beating. If that makes me a wimp, why, I’m a wimp!
Well, in this case, obviously, I’d pick a flogging. I had more in mind the “open wound in the back each time the cane/whip/whatever hits” + months of recovery kind of flogging (I voted for jail, FTR).
He is talking about some kind of psuedo-flogging, which doesn’t leave permanent marks and you’re back to work the next day…and I still think I’d rather take prison. I’ve never been whipped, but I have found whippings hot in movies or fiction at times. I say that to show that I’m not horrified by the mere concept or anything, but real flogging is not hot or sexy or remotely pleasant. It will take the flesh off your back in ribbons.
And that doesn’t even count what it’s going to do to the person who’s administering it. Jail guards and judges and nearly everyone involved in law enforcement get cynical and hardened and often bitter, so don’t tell me flogging won’t affect the people involved. And then if I get a particularly cruel flogger of course there are ways to do more damage.
It’s humiliating and demeaning, and I rather think it falls under the heading of “cruel and unusual punishment.”
All this of course means I did something serious enough for prison and not just jail! I can’t really see myself ever committing a crime that serious to start with.
Someone hitting me with a stick under strict medical supervision and not even giving me severe bruises? I’d take a lot of that before I wasted my time in jail! But that’s not really ‘flogging’, is it?
Exactly. Hurting you is the point. And if you say you’ll take a dozen lashes over jail, the judge would probably say “Fine then. Two dozen lashes and jail it is, then!”
