I'm with Bill on this. In his first try at "playing God", the protagonist was horrified because his instinctive actions caused more harm instead of preventing harm. His later, more considered intervention accomplished the goal without any obvious, immediate negative effects. (Confronted by the first situation again, he would not simply say, "Stop!" He would influence the men to feel empathy for the victim (male or female), so they would ALL decide to stop (instead of slaughtering each other over their suddenly-different interpretations of holy writ).
RM
Playing God
- Robert_Moriyama
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Not "men's life more valuable", but "four liv
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
Jack London (1876-1916)
Jack London (1876-1916)
- Robert_Moriyama
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Note to self: Giving the power of life and death to ...
Bottomdweller will probably be avoiding international air travel, because HER "extra baggage" charges would be pretty high...
We seem to be arguing a LOT about who deserves to live and who deserves to die -- if WE were given the power of life and death.
Anybody who attacks a woman deserves to die! Confirmed terrorists deserve to die! Um, people who might possibly be terrorists deserve to die, or at least be tortured, especially if they have funny sounding names or need a compass to figure out which way to face when they pray! Uppity blacks deserve to die! Oppressing whites deserve to die! Big-endians deserve to die! (Hey, which end of the egg you should open IS of cosmic importance.).
Each of us has a particular definition of "capital crimes"; some are very narrow; some are very broad; some items occur on most people's lists (harming a child); some occur only rarely (er, opening the wrong end of the egg). From the sound of this thread, some of us would happily do violence to those whose lists are different from our own.
So whatever the author's intentions, whatever the perceived quality of the writing, the author HAS succeeded in evoking some strong (if unintended) reactions. He has made us THINK, and FEEL (and comment). And for that, he should be applauded.
Ye Editor
We seem to be arguing a LOT about who deserves to live and who deserves to die -- if WE were given the power of life and death.
Anybody who attacks a woman deserves to die! Confirmed terrorists deserve to die! Um, people who might possibly be terrorists deserve to die, or at least be tortured, especially if they have funny sounding names or need a compass to figure out which way to face when they pray! Uppity blacks deserve to die! Oppressing whites deserve to die! Big-endians deserve to die! (Hey, which end of the egg you should open IS of cosmic importance.).
Each of us has a particular definition of "capital crimes"; some are very narrow; some are very broad; some items occur on most people's lists (harming a child); some occur only rarely (er, opening the wrong end of the egg). From the sound of this thread, some of us would happily do violence to those whose lists are different from our own.
So whatever the author's intentions, whatever the perceived quality of the writing, the author HAS succeeded in evoking some strong (if unintended) reactions. He has made us THINK, and FEEL (and comment). And for that, he should be applauded.
Ye Editor
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
Jack London (1876-1916)
Jack London (1876-1916)