I think too often these days politics is affected by a simple unwillingness to either see or to face up to the factors that mark it for what it is in a crude, effective pattern. ( cut for FLs )
Sentencing to death is not punishment, it's revenge. Pictures above make that clear. You hate people like Timothy McVeigh and want them to suffer. That doesn't sound like the providence of any fair and just society.
I do not advocate it, but rather note that it is the realistic determiner of good and evil and right and wrong. What I'd advocate would be a world based on a different, alternate principle.
Oppressors tend to crumble under their own brutality. Holding onto power thru violence takes tremendous support, support that must have little to no ambition, otherwise a coup occurs.
Even dictators like Castro have realized that to hold on to power they must have a sense of fairness and justice, even if it's a little warped from our perspective.
One way dictators try to hold onto power and eliminate ambition in the ranks is to elevate herr leader to cult like status, where emulation is impossible (There can only be only one (God))
I would argue that holding onto violence is the last resort, as you're right: regimes that rely purely on brutality don't tend to last long and they die by inches.
If the efficiency with which force is applied determines what is good or evil, then the death penalty should be judged on its efficiency, not on whether or not you consider it "irrational".
That doesn't exactly follow, as each situation has its own criteria to follow by this standard. The death penalty has never been a deterrent to crime in any point in history no matter how it's been done, so it's always been inefficient.
Its good to see people thinking about things as opposed to googling a number of random facts anyone could find on the 1nt3rn37z and assembling them into something resembling a good post. ((((:
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And if it turns out the person convicted was innocent?
What then? A nice wreath for their gravesite?
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Here is an interesting song that advocates the doctrine of might makes right:
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Even dictators like Castro have realized that to hold on to power they must have a sense of fairness and justice, even if it's a little warped from our perspective.
One way dictators try to hold onto power and eliminate ambition in the ranks is to elevate herr leader to cult like status, where emulation is impossible (There can only be only one (God))
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Go straighten her out.
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I guess that's better than the "atheism hurr durr" option, though.
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Just my preference...
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