Reminds me of a credit card offer I got the other day, which offered me a "free gift."
You mean I don't have to pay for it?
People's inability to use words and ideas and logic is a deadly epidemic.
If people ceased to be able to add 1 + 1 and get 2, how quickly would the world descend into flames? It's the same if people can't see that cat = cat, dog = dog, and mercy does not equal justice.
I know there are books on tape but when you said that after "what's wrong with this statement" it just seemed wrong in the cosmic scheme of things...books...read...call me crazy. Personally I don't read or listen to books, except curious george so maybe I'm off track. :)
So, yeah. "We gave mercy to everyone who deserved it." And, at least in my view, mercy is something that by definition is always unearned.
Justice is, as Kenny said, getting what we deserve - no more, no less. To the extent that we can finely customize a punishment or reward to include any and all relevant factors, we are being just.
Why do you suppose this misconception of mercy exists? Is it because we think of a decent guy on trial, begging for mercy, and we want him to get it because we know "he's not a bad guy?" But if he's not a bad guy, he should receive justice.
Maybe it's because we've set justice and mercy as the yin and yang of reciprocity - the things I do to punish you for your crimes are justice, and the mitigating circumstances I take into account to scale back that punishment are mercy?
That's my big question: not simply to point out what was said, but to figure out why it was said.
6 comments:
Reminds me of a credit card offer I got the other day, which offered me a "free gift."
You mean I don't have to pay for it?
People's inability to use words and ideas and logic is a deadly epidemic.
If people ceased to be able to add 1 + 1 and get 2, how quickly would the world descend into flames? It's the same if people can't see that cat = cat, dog = dog, and mercy does not equal justice.
oops..okay I said,
From a book I've been "listening" to...that seems wierd to me.
A book on tape, on my iPod through a friend, which I listen to to and from work and at lunch, except when I don't.
Robert Jordan's fantasy novel "The Dragon Reborn" is the source, if anyone's curious.
I know there are books on tape but when you said that after "what's wrong with this statement" it just seemed wrong in the cosmic scheme of things...books...read...call me crazy. Personally I don't read or listen to books, except curious george so maybe I'm off track. :)
But yes I see the mercy thing...He's dumb.
Boy - I'm slow. That was a pretty obvious weirdness.
So, yeah. "We gave mercy to everyone who deserved it." And, at least in my view, mercy is something that by definition is always unearned.
Justice is, as Kenny said, getting what we deserve - no more, no less. To the extent that we can finely customize a punishment or reward to include any and all relevant factors, we are being just.
Why do you suppose this misconception of mercy exists? Is it because we think of a decent guy on trial, begging for mercy, and we want him to get it because we know "he's not a bad guy?" But if he's not a bad guy, he should receive justice.
Maybe it's because we've set justice and mercy as the yin and yang of reciprocity - the things I do to punish you for your crimes are justice, and the mitigating circumstances I take into account to scale back that punishment are mercy?
That's my big question: not simply to point out what was said, but to figure out why it was said.
Thoughts?
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