Executions

[fabrisse]

My stand against the death penalty is visceral.

If society is willing to kill an individual, how can society take the moral high ground and say the individuals within it are forbidden to kill?

Tonight Saddam Hussein was executed. Few doubt he was guilty of the crimes. There are more trials that will not be held on other charges -- including Kurdish genocide -- because he has already paid the ultimate price.

This may or may not make him into a martyr to the Sunni Muslims of Iraq. His trial may or may not have been fair -- though any appearance of impropriety didn't have any chance to be investigated.

I have no doubt in my mind that this man inflicted his own death penalty on thousands of people.

And yet my gorge rose when the Special Report broke in on Jeopardy. The only (whatever atheists call it) prayer that I offered was for his soul to be treated appropriately in any afterlife that may come.

But as a human being, I can't help feeling that this was the wrong thing to do.

If this country is trying to demonstrate that representative democracy and the rule of law are better than dictatorship, then how is killing the dictator going to prove it?

Comments

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

There is a social theory about the progress of humanity. In the first phase we take care of ourselves first and foremost. In the second, we look out for our family to the exclusion of everyone else. A little later we may define family in a broader sense, but it remains people we know. This is the Mafia phase, if you will.

The third phase allows us to have a stronger sense of purpose. Our country and its precepts -- this is the phase of true patriotism -- become a strong force that may outweigh the good of our family or of ourselves depending upon the circumstances. We follow the law, sometimes blindly.

The fourth allows us higher ideals, but we don't necessarily formulate those ideals for ourselves. We may occasionally break a law, with due consideration, if we consider that it violates these ideals.

There are two higher phases, but my point is that as a society with our Constitution we should be operating at level four at minimum. The ideals are set out for us, all we need to do is believe and follow them.

At best we seem to be at level three and so often its level two. This execution feels level two. Tribes want the blood or head of their enemies. Countries rarely do.

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

First, thanks for that. It's interesting in studying the anthropological structure of a family or society, which I find is interchangeable depending on the "village" feel of the family, whether it's by blood or not. But that's really just a comment, not really my point here.*g*

Second, I think that the level here seems to be a mixture of two and three, but on a more political scapegoat viewpoint. Flag-waving and saber-rattling to the tune of "You hurt me, you die" (im)morality.