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If people never base their actions on a fear of death, how could the death penalty be used as a detriment? Making people always fearful of death, taking hold of those who act improperly and executing them - wouldn't that prevent people from daring to act improperly? If people have no choice but to always be in fear of dying, then they'd be sure to appoint someone as an executioner. When an executioner is in charge of who is to be put to death, he's been given the authority of a skilled carpenter who determines how to carve wood. When that skilled carpenter carves his wood, rarely would anyone not find their own hand injured.  Commentary: 74 ~ Threats Of Punishment -If people never base their actions on a fear of death, how could the death penalty be used as a detriment? -Making people always fearful of death, taking hold of those who act improperly and executing them - wouldn't that prevent people from daring to act improperly? When society tries to mandate people's behavior, there has to be not only a threat of punishment, but actually carrying out the threats in order to get people to comply with the laws. If someone who breaks the law sees others being punished for their crimes, wouldn't that seem to be sufficient to prevent them from doing anything wrong? Throughout history, those forms of threats and punishments haven't prevented people from breaking laws, have they? -If people have no choice but to always be in fear of dying, then they'd be sure to appoint someone as an executioner. There are so many stories in the news about people getting killed or seriously injured by other people, it’s no wonder everyone is in fear of maybe losing their own lives. So they set up a judicial system which is supposed to fairly determine who the criminals are and to punish them so everyone could feel safer. -When an executioner is in charge of who is to be put to death, he's been given the authority of a skilled carpenter who determines how to carve wood. We give the judicial system ultimate authority. A skilled carpenter decides what it is he's going to carve, then hacks away the parts that don't fit into his design. If the judicial system takes over the authority for running the world, determining who's to live and who's to die, then those who don't fit into the mold society has designed will be cast off like sawdust or wood shavings. -When that skilled carpenter carves his wood, rarely would anyone not find their own hand injured. We might think of ourselves as being innocent, so we have nothing to fear from the judicial system. It’s the bad people who need to be punished, not us. We want to be rid of anyone who might cause harm to us or those we love. There are a couple of problems with that scenario: - How could anyone know if they might not be the next target of the executioner? You might be wrongly accused of a crime, and the system you set up to punish the wrong-doers could as easily punish you wrongly. - By setting up a system and placing authority in the hands of others to dole out punishments, you still have to accept the fact that you’re the real executioner. Would you be able to punish others in that way yourself? What if you punished the wrong person? Could you feel comfortable with that? Threats of punishment - and the punishments themselves - haven’t ridden the world of people who cause harm to others. There has to be a better way. Alternate translation: If people don’t think they’ll get caught for commiting crimes, how could the death penalty make them stop? If enough people actually did get caught and were punished, wouldn’t that make them change their ways? But then, someone has to be the one to decide who should be punished. Giving someone all that power over people’s lives can be scary, and you never know if you might be the one to be on the chopper’s block. Everyone ends up getting hurt. | BY: Nina | Guodian Laozi | DDJ Concordance | Comparisons | Who was Laozi | | Return Home | Laozi's Dao De Jing | Your Dao De Jing | Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu) | Links | Meditation | Dao (Tao) is Open Forum | Book List | Other Stuff | |
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