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Re: JimmyA,
I'm sure you're right, that the debate began with the first time someone asked, "Did you have to kill...?"
And then someone asked, "Why did you kill?" And then someone started trying to make rules about it, so everyone could know when and if it was acceptible or necessary, or just, not. It's such a slippery topic, as times and values and morals shift around.
posted by
Ciel
on June 2, 2013 at 10:00 AM
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This is one of those topics that has been debated over and over and over for many years now, and here never seems to be a definitive answer, one way or another. I will always feel that killing is wrong, period, unless I am in a situation where it is "kill or be killed." But how often does that happen, unless you're in the military? Apart from that, an eye for an eye never seems to be justified, at least not by "civilized" people . . . 
posted by
JimmyA
on June 2, 2013 at 9:27 AM
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Re: Naut,
The beginning is way back somewhere among our ancestors, the hominids, I guess. After all, murder is not just a human, but a primate thing. Jane Goodall was shocked and saddened to discover it, and said of the chimpanzees, "We thought they were nicer than us. They are not."
posted by
Ciel
on June 2, 2013 at 7:11 AM
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Ciel
Being reflective itself, this post is an occsion for reflection, as so often with your posts. And I cast my mind across the course of human history, and I don't know where to begin...
posted by
Nautikos
on June 1, 2013 at 10:04 PM
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Re: Kabu,
Realistically, there is no one best answer to fit every circumstance, I think all intelligent people know that. And there are so many aspects to even the hypothetical questions, never absolute answers, without a certain degree of fanaticism that refuses to look at all aspects equally.
WW2 has been called the last just war. Maybe it was... maybe it was only less convoluted and confusing than the wars we are fighting now.
posted by
Ciel
on June 1, 2013 at 2:42 PM
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I would really love to be a pacifist...I would be but I know that there is
a limit where I would cross the divide in order to save someone that I love.
punishment is one thing but no one has ever convinced me that killing achieves a desired result. was WW!! the War we had to have??? Were we forced into a situation where we had to fight back??? Yes I think we were so again my pacifist notions are eaten into. A huge subject darling.
posted by
Kabu
on June 1, 2013 at 1:29 PM
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Re: CCT,
yes, I wanted to lighten the mood around here.
And, yes, we do become desensitized, individually and collectively, but only to a certain depth, a defense against the powerlessness to change matters. While we are pretending a terrible thing is not real or not important, underneath, it goes on wounding us.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/therovingeye/sets/72157626586515084/
There's a little something that maybe will cheer you up!
posted by
Ciel
on June 1, 2013 at 12:39 PM
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Re: BC-A,
No, I don't think it is. It is one thing, and a very significant thing. But 5 million Frenchmen are not always right, and the majority does not and should not always rule. Sometimes it is individuality, uncommon ideas, self-knowledge that is important. Without it, Society has no creativity, no progress--no new notions to stirr and move things.
posted by
Ciel
on June 1, 2013 at 12:26 PM
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Ceil
pSociety concept’s everything love. BC-A, Bill’s R®st
posted by
BC-A
on June 1, 2013 at 3:24 AM
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Crikey a cheerful subject to muse over. I suppose if one has faith
it kind of softens the blow . Also humans can be come desensitized to cruelty rather
too easily. I think I will leave this one for the more sensitive commentator.
posted by
C_C_T
on June 1, 2013 at 12:50 AM
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