recessional: a photo image of feet in sparkly red shoes (Default)
M ([personal profile] recessional) wrote in [personal profile] kaberett 2017-11-03 01:57 pm (UTC)

Re: (aside)

I'm aware :) I spent a non-trivial amount of time reading said scholarship, as part of when I was looking at old Germanic law codes and their very monetary ways of attempting the same balance and social organization. (As well as other models).

However my point is that no punishment is actually balanced: because of how people are interconnected, if you put a theif in jail or confiscate his property you are affecting anyone connected to him - family, friends, people who have no responsibility for the theft. Sometimes it's a huge effect; sometimes it's just inconvenience, like a boss needing to find a new employee. But either way, it's still imbalanced.

And if the person is so disconnected, then it's most likely because of life experiences that indicate they've already been runt targets of injustice. So justice is already irreparably unbalanced.

That it's better than blood feud is certainly true! As well as all the other things. My point is not "this is a bad society/immoral way of doing things" - my point is the second that wrongdoing occurs justice is terminally wounded and there's no way to actually "balance" it. Not that you shouldn't: you CAN'T. It's not possible. You just keep moving the injustice down the line.

And likewise LACK of punishment isn't just either, which is the point: if you unconditionally forgive everyone without process you inflict injustice on both past and present victims.


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