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It might interest you to check out Better Angels of Our Nature, a book by Steven Pinker about the history of violence. He argues that it's typical for humans to
by csallen 11y ago
It might interest you to check out Better Angels of Our Nature, a book by Steven Pinker about the history of violence. He argues that it's typical for humans to fall into cycles of retributive/vengeful violence against one another, or even "Hobbesian trap" patterns of preemptive violence. This leads to astronomically high rates of homicide.
The development of governments that have a monopoly on the use of violence helped curb this. If both sides of a dispute cede their right to violence and entrust a neutral third party with dispensing justice, they can be satisfied with the outcome and save face. For obvious reasons, this leads to a much more civil society than people needing to take the law into their own hands.
In this sense, it's actually a blessing that we're inclined to feel so satisfied seeing justice done by a third party.
- chongli 11y agoIn this sense, it's actually a blessing that we're inclined to feel so satisfied seeing justice done by a third party. Maybe, but the schadenfreude is going to boil over if we ever get to see Holmes being perp-walked in her black turtleneck.