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Originally posted by Stratos:
Fairly irrelevant if you're the criminal and have a death penaly hanging over your head.
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True. But if the criminal survives, without cheating, they get to continue breathing. The will to cling to life, no matter how miserable the life may be, is a powerful thing.
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Honour or not, who would pit themselves against a convicted, possibly professional, and most likely dangerous criminal?
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As I've already said: someone who is not a coward and prepared to risk their life to avenge the death of their loved ones. I know that if my friends or family were murdered, the utter hatred I would feel for their killers would easily override any fair of death in combat.
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I was thinking about my family. They'll have to have enough money for two funerals, mine and whoever it was I tried to avenge.
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True. You may have to cut costs on your funeral then if your family is not particularly well off. No surprises there, it's just the way finance works.
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In other words; state sanctioned vendettas.
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Yeah, if history is any guideline, some people will pay alot of money to watch people die. Duels/Gladiatorial Combat/Formalised Execution: they have all had their place as popular public spectacles. And hey if your undertake your duel in the public sphere, you may even receive corporate sponsorship, thus taking care of the 'life insurance' queries you had earlier.
I think you and I just have different ideas regarding what human life is and how it should be approached/valued. For me there is no merit in pacifism. There is no afterlife, for me or for anyone else, or so I believe. All grievances must be settled here and now, in this material world. I can't just sit on my hands and hope for divine punishment of transgression in the netherworld because it simply isn't going to happen. Likewise, taking a passive standpoint isn't going to grant me a seat in paradise either. The dissolution of heaven gives life an even greater sense of urgency. So, only the present matters, only now matters, and therefore, revenge matters too.