My definition of “civilized”
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
Acting civilized: doing right by others even in the absence of negative consequences for doing wrong.
For example, not raping just because you can get away with it. Not littering. Not stealing. By my definition, every country has some civilized people and some savages in it. And not all savages victimize others, some fear the consequences enough to check their own impulses.
As an adult non incarcerated male, I don’t evaluation my daily outfit for how much of a target they would make me for opportunistic rapists. Depending on the location, more than a few of my female friends have to consider it. Living up to Kipling’s idea of how dangerous women are would go a long way towards making more of the savages desist in their rapey behavior for fear of immediate rather than deferred consequences. As we well know, a mere chance of moderate punishment later isn’t much of a deterrent. A high probability of death or injury works better, and cuts down on recidivism nicely.
Pity the European governments, with the exception of Czechs and some of the Baltic states, are more afraid of allowing carry of arms to their own citizens than they are concerned with the safety of the people. The same is true of such US hellholes as New York and New Jersey. Professional courtesy, from political savages to the freelance criminal savages, no doubt! Both like to hold sway over others, just in slightly different ways.