For a steady state analysis such first order black and white approach may hold. The metaphor is brilliant at that. But punishment is a multifaceted thing. It s

For a steady state analysis such first order black and white approach may hold. The metaphor is brilliant at that. But punishment is a multifaceted thing. It serves for protection, but also virtue signaling and creating incentive. There's eye for an eye, too, the taliation principle, and that's what the grand parent comment lamments, I guess. There are different theories of punishment. Satisfaction from reciprocating pain shouldn't be the goal, at any rate. Getting nevertheless to letting somebody have a taste of their own medicine as a way of irony, is much more difficult, but much more effective than selectively accepting the legitimacy of the method and forcing the taste.