Just a reminder...

THE critical justification for Society
imposing punishment {including even
The Death Penalty} is NOT to protect
Society from the criminal (Society can
withstand a great deal of crime and still
survive--thusly, it is also NOT to deter crimes); and it is NOT even to actually
punish the criminal, since most of the
citizenry seldom even hears about crimes
committed by individual criminals...

Rather, it is to prevent the members of Society from falling into the belief that
the only way they can get justice is to exact a personal revenge.

Just as the beginnings of civilization can be traced directly to that moment when
personal revenge is replaced by a collectively agreed-to justice, its fall into Chaos will be surely marked by that moment when Society can no longer guarantee its members that if they forego personal revenge Society will itself punish the guilty.

Gil Warren

writeme@somethingorother.com

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