On Friday I got two bits of email in my mailbox.
One was this: Virginia killer who sent taunting letter executed about the execution of a man by electrocution at the hands of the State of Virginia.
The second was this, from the Dali Lama:
In the interest of full disclosure, let say straight out that, if someone harmed my daughter in the way this man did, or in any of the other horrible ways that humans can inflict suffering on each other, I would want to murder them. Slowly, painfully. I would want to look into their eyes while they died.
But here's the thing. I live in the society of others as a buffer against my my, and others, baser instincts. I want the people around me to encourage me to higher ground, to help me to see what I already understand: that no amount of suffering inflicted on someone who has done me or mine damage, "pays" for the damage done. It simple increases the sum total of suffering in the world.
I want people like the Dali Lama to encourage me back to the basic rules of humanity.
What I don't want, need nor benefit from is institutionalization of revenge by the state. Do we really think that this state sponsored taking the life has lessened the pain or suffering of this family?
What I know is my heart of hearts - that part of me that is roughed over by reason and intellect - is that if I indulged my desire for revenge it would damage me. It would lessen me. It would make me, in many ways, indistinguishable from the person whose suffering I "enjoyed."
What this man did was horrible, inconceivably painful both to the victims and those left living. But it cannot be unforgivable.
If what we do is kill killers, all we are saying is that there are "good" reasons to take a human life. Once we have done that, we are then free, as individuals, to appropriate that reasoning and make it our own. And so we have this man that saw his racial hatred as a "good" reason to do what he did to his victims. And I think killing him for what he has done is a "good" reason.
And on it goes.
One was this: Virginia killer who sent taunting letter executed about the execution of a man by electrocution at the hands of the State of Virginia.
The second was this, from the Dali Lama:
We should not seek revenge on those who have committed crimes against us, or reply to their crimes with other crimes. We should reflect that by the law of karma, they are in danger of lowly and miserable lives to come, and that our duty to them, as to every being, is to help them to rise towards Nirvana, rather than let them sink to lower levels of rebirth.Now, I am not a believer in the supernatural - the Buddhist version, the Christian version, the Santa Claus version - none of it. I also do not believe that things always work out to the end of justice. Nice guys do finish last and bad guys do die in splendor and comfort. But I have to go with the Dali Lama on this one.
In the interest of full disclosure, let say straight out that, if someone harmed my daughter in the way this man did, or in any of the other horrible ways that humans can inflict suffering on each other, I would want to murder them. Slowly, painfully. I would want to look into their eyes while they died.
But here's the thing. I live in the society of others as a buffer against my my, and others, baser instincts. I want the people around me to encourage me to higher ground, to help me to see what I already understand: that no amount of suffering inflicted on someone who has done me or mine damage, "pays" for the damage done. It simple increases the sum total of suffering in the world.
I want people like the Dali Lama to encourage me back to the basic rules of humanity.
What I don't want, need nor benefit from is institutionalization of revenge by the state. Do we really think that this state sponsored taking the life has lessened the pain or suffering of this family?
What I know is my heart of hearts - that part of me that is roughed over by reason and intellect - is that if I indulged my desire for revenge it would damage me. It would lessen me. It would make me, in many ways, indistinguishable from the person whose suffering I "enjoyed."
What this man did was horrible, inconceivably painful both to the victims and those left living. But it cannot be unforgivable.
If what we do is kill killers, all we are saying is that there are "good" reasons to take a human life. Once we have done that, we are then free, as individuals, to appropriate that reasoning and make it our own. And so we have this man that saw his racial hatred as a "good" reason to do what he did to his victims. And I think killing him for what he has done is a "good" reason.
And on it goes.
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If someone tortures and kills a loved one of mine, I have always said, give me a gun - I'll be happy to seek my justice - myself. If that isn't going to happen, never mind - just throw away the key. When the state acts as an agent of revenge, it weakens itself horribly in its perceived role as a moral authority. I am also always puzzled by the argument against a woman's right to choose while simultanelously supporting capital punishment! Oh and supporting war. You either believe all life is sacred and/or in the words of Monty Python, "every sperm is sacred" or you don't. If the victim's loved ones can't take their revenge, let 'em rot forever in a nasty prison - with NO parole.
ReplyDeleteWell stated Mr. Council. Though my "baser instincts" kick in as well, with regard to my loved ones, society is supposed to act as a moral buffer...which is where the rule of law is supposed to intervene. Still, it's a tough thought to swallow...if that ever happened to my daughter (or son), I don't know...perhaps I would have to come back as an amoeba.
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