|
You see, the problem I have with this is that courts are supposed to hand down justice. "Justice," even in a classical sense, aims to maintain equilibrium and harmony within a society. An eye for an eye, especially in a contemporary setting, does little work towards this, and would, in most cases, have the opposite effect. How does continuing a cycle of violence work towards a return to social harmony after a wrongdoing?
__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
|