The more just the law, the better the law. Every good person wants to be treated fairly. And just laws, when enforced, do just that.
"If anything be against justice... it is cruelty." ~ George MacDonald
How is eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth unjust?
If you love truth more than your ideas about what is just and right you will wrestle with the following argument until you either come to agree with it or refute it through the use of a more solid argument.
The Argument
If the government did not allow individuals to take the law into their own hands while enforcing eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth (after a conviction was made), the violent would quickly learn self control (especially if such punishments were public). Such a law would make society more civil.
The mafia uses violence because they know it has the power to modify people’s behaviour. Every violent person understands the power of intimidation. (It is the only thing that restrains some people. They have no desire to do what is right.)
Now you may say that the government enforcing eye for an eye would make the government uncivil; but to prove that, you’d have to prove that such a law is unjust.
The less just a law is, the more uncivil that law is. The more just, the more civil.
"If anything be against justice... it is cruelty."
In all my life not a single person has been able to tell me how an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth is unjust. Plenty of people have said it’s barbaric, but that’s not an argument. It’s simply an appeal to people’s emotions.
Not only is eye for an eye just, it would help most people to show more restraint when angered. It would make our society more civil.
—
If you think you can refute the argument above write to me. I may be mistaken.
To be able to admit you were wrong is a strength.
And since I sincerely believe that I love truth more than any ideology, belief or religion, I’ll post your response below if you are able to convince me that an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth (when enforced as stated above) would make our society less civil.
Lex Talionis (eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth)