Yi-Long wrote:If I KNOW someone has killed my cat or raped my girl, -I- will be the judge that that person is evil/bad and deserves to die.
That's what you will feel like. I guess I would feel so, too in the beginning. Luckily, I can say that I never had to experience the feeling of losing a direct member of my family or circle of friends by the hands of a murderer. But from what I have seen and heard about, people never felt better after revenge. It doesn't bring back your loved ones. That's also the message of so many movies. How about the ending of "Boyz 'N' the Hood"?
And also who am I to decide over a human being's death or life? If I kill that person, I lower myself to the same level. I am not a criminal like the one who has caused me emotional pain. And I know this guy's family must be stupid enough to kill me if I killed the guy. Maybe his brother would kill my brother? It would be an endless going if everybody thought like that.
And in case he is sentenced to death by an official court of justice, it lowers the nation to the same level of the killer.
Ofcourse, I wouldnt be in favour of killing or hurting such a person if I wasnt completely sure... but if you ARE sure, no problem getting rid of them.
Really no problem at all? Would you say that again when you are about to pull the trigger. Please think deeply about it before replying out of emotion.
You know, one of the relatives of those shot-down Taiwanese men, watched the execution of Williams. Even she had forgiven him and cried really hard before, during and after the execution was performed.
Yeah, but our (Mark, mine and many others) judgements of people arent based on religion or superstition or whatever other -ions there are. It's based on a normal, rational, common idea of what is right and wrong behaviour.
Errr... that's what people thought back then as well. It WAS wrong to have red hair. It WAS wrong to say the world was a sphere. It WAS wrong to walk around half-naked like many people do here in summertime. These were common laws and not only officially, but also fixed codecs people used to live by. It was only natural. This has changed over the years. Killing and raping wasn't allowed back then either, but stuff that was forbidden back then is now allowed, just as stuff that is forbidden now was allowed back then. (Hope that made sense.

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Society developes such norms in order to feel less or not guilty about the killing of a wrong-doer.
There are so many other ways of punishment. Does it have to be death?
You do? You think Mother Theresa was equal to Saddam?
Yes, I do. As human beings, they were equal. What they made of their life was different, though.
We aren't even born equal
That's right. You always knew that MINE has always been much bigger than YOURS, didn't you?
Just kidding. Seriously, though, I do believe that human beings are born equal, just as tigers, eagles and any kind of other animals are born equal to another.
cause some are born with GOOD parents, some with BAD parents, some with RICH, some with POOR, some in a good area, some in a bad area... etc etc...
With the word 'equality' you guys seem to connect something totally different from what I associate with it. With equality, I am talking of human base rights. When I lose the right to drive a car, because I did some shit with it, I can understand as driving a car is not part of the basic human rights. And these basic human rights are called like that, because it is illegal to take them from a human being, no matter what he did.
And when I read sentences like...
Some people are just pieces of shit who need to be stepped on for the good of the innocent.
...or...
Ofcourse, I wouldnt be in favour of killing or hurting such a person if I wasnt completely sure... but if you ARE sure, no problem getting rid of them.
...I wonder how the leaders of the Western countries can talk of their countries as civilised nations. Yi, if the above statement of yours (that if you are completely sure about the guilt of a murderer, you can kill him) applied as a law, I can foretell that a lot more people were dying here. I know in terms of 'complete sureness', you are talking about DNA stuff and whatever, but you know what? I can imagine that some people could become completely sure of the guilt of John Doe, when their wife/best friend/local bartender (or whoever) told them they saw the killing and they saw John Doe do it. That's it! John Doe would be a dead man. Why? Because the avenger's best friend told him he saw John Doe kill. Such conditions would be the conditions of stone-age.
These people you talk about might be dilluted enough to THINK they are right, but they will KILL and HURT INNOCENT people. It's a war for them. I doubt people like me and Mark would ever think that hurting innocent people would be worth it to reach our goals or whatever.
We are talking about people that rape and murder and are EVIL. These people you talk of base their judgement on people purely on skincolour-religion, and other stuff that says nothing about what kind of a person someone REALLY is...
It's always easier to point the finger at other persons as it is so hard to tell one's own faults. Yi, I know you know that there are thousands, no millions of people in Africa, for example, who hold a grudge against you and me and Mark and even Jens, the founder of Bullets. Not because we seem to be bad persons to them. No. Because with our consume of raw materials we are constantly destroying their economy and indireclty (maybe even directly) are killing hundred thousands of people. Or why do you think there have been so many protests against the minister meeting of the WTO in HK? Why have experts always been foretelling the failure of the WTO meetings? Because they always re-arrange the same package of a solution, but just with a different wrapping. Rich countries wouldn't want to not make lots of profits and yet they must pretend to be doing something for the poorer countries. Which brings us back to the 'feel-less-guilty-part'.
Europe, the USA, Canada and Japan are giving a lot of aid and poor countries must be thankful for that. But if you cut off a person's legs, give him a wheelchair and expect him to be grateful for that, there is something very wrong with the giver.
These 'wheelchairs' in forms of cash-crops or licenses to produce Western medicals (although the factories are lacking for that in Africa) are just there so the rich-country's societies feel less guilty for what is happening in the poor countires. And it works.
If I was a citizen in Africa and looked at the either blind or not-caring society of the rich countries, I'd develope a grudge against them as well.
So are these people EVIL? Because they do not accept our norm of contentment when we see that there is something done for them by our countries? We do not EXACTLY know what it is, but we know the guys up there ARE doing something.
I know I went a bit far here, but this was just to show where such a thinking ('there are certain people who deserve to die') can lead.