The whole eye for an eye thing (updated)

[koalathebear]

Poor winterspel was just the recipient of some ravings of mine. I was thinking about the whole eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth thing and I find myself mulling about it further. I see the fundamental justice of the eye for an eye concept, but as I mentioned, we are flawed humans. Therefore, in many cases it's not an eye for an eye. When we are angry and

Comments

[ginger001]

I wanted to comment because I found the post really interesting... but I'm not sure I have a clear idea of what I think about this. The easy answer would be that I am against the 'eye for an eye' vengeance and I am. And I do think most of the people say they are too, but placed in the situation of somebody they loved getting killed or something... I think a lot of them would ask for just that for the killer (sadly I have seen a lot scenes like that on TV

[koalathebear]

Thanks for posting. I know exactly what you mean. I've thought about the issue of an 'eye for an eye' a lot. I've just updated the post with an article I just found which was really interesting - about a woman whose brother was killed a few years back and how she felt - she didn't want the death penalty. I guess she's in the minority but it just goes to show that there are different reactions.

Friedrich Nietzsche said: "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you". It's something I think that has to be thought about before we want to have a society that sanctions capital punishment ...

Thanks again for posting. Your thoughts are precious to me :)

[ginger001]

That woman you mention isn't an isolated case since I have heard testimonies of people who also thought that after somebody killed one of their beloved ones, and don't want the 'eye for an eye' punishment for the person who did it. Probably as you say is a minority but it exists.

I don't know what is the right and equitable punishment for somebody who did a wrong thing... maybe I don't want to know... because in my case my thoughts go to the family of the victim and the victim first but sometimes my head also tries to figure out why that person did what he/she did.

Let me tell you that this issue is very interesting, very important to discuss about but very confusing to me. I know what I feel about it, I know what I think about it and my beliefs about it are based in what I've been taught about right and wrong by my parents and the enviroment around me, but it's really hard to analize and to be able to see all opinions with perspective.

Btw, I think Nietzsche was quite right in that quote. ;)