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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6735543" data-attributes="member: 4937">I realize that, but I would expect people in a technical discussion like this one to be able to see it in context, especially when I introduced the subject in context and explicitly bracketed it with both more and less merciful examples legal codes.&nbsp; I'm not sure how I could have been more clear.Sure.&nbsp; I understand that.&nbsp; We are a remarkably tolerant society from a historical standpoint, albeit a remarkably tolerant society with the highest incarceration rates in world history so maybe we should show a little humility regarding our judgments of others.&nbsp;&nbsp; In any event, we are discussing judicial systems in the context of a fantasy world normally grounded in tropes drawn from antiquity and the middle ages, where the reality of pre-Hammurabic ideas of justice is probably wide spread and criminal penalties are - because of the general poverty of society and inability to afford caring for non-productive members - generally quite harsh and cruel by comparison (and at least from some perspectives) to modern punishments.&nbsp;&nbsp; Or at least, if they are not more cruel they are definitely unusual to us and more vulgar - floggings and pillories for example are low cost relatively high deterrence 'solutions'.&nbsp;&nbsp; Its in context of a world like that that I sought to differentiate judicial codes on the good/evil axis, with Hammurabi's famous expression as an example of an obvious well-known 'middle way' where we clearly could be both more or less merciful.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6735543, member: 4937"] I realize that, but I would expect people in a technical discussion like this one to be able to see it in context, especially when I introduced the subject in context and explicitly bracketed it with both more and less merciful examples legal codes. I'm not sure how I could have been more clear. Sure. I understand that. We are a remarkably tolerant society from a historical standpoint, albeit a remarkably tolerant society with the highest incarceration rates in world history so maybe we should show a little humility regarding our judgments of others. In any event, we are discussing judicial systems in the context of a fantasy world normally grounded in tropes drawn from antiquity and the middle ages, where the reality of pre-Hammurabic ideas of justice is probably wide spread and criminal penalties are - because of the general poverty of society and inability to afford caring for non-productive members - generally quite harsh and cruel by comparison (and at least from some perspectives) to modern punishments. Or at least, if they are not more cruel they are definitely unusual to us and more vulgar - floggings and pillories for example are low cost relatively high deterrence 'solutions'. Its in context of a world like that that I sought to differentiate judicial codes on the good/evil axis, with Hammurabi's famous expression as an example of an obvious well-known 'middle way' where we clearly could be both more or less merciful. [/QUOTE]

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