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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Brother MacLaren" data-source="post: 1953073" data-attributes="member: 15999">I think I got him on this track by saying that this paladin would fit well in games that are Dark Ages/Medieval in their brutality and coarseness, after you had made the point that we aren't using modern ethics.  I haven't formally studied moral philosophy, but I've learned some informally about history and political theory.  I feel a little outgunned here, but here goes."We" (industrialized nations, generally, though there are others) have tried to set the bar somewhat higher than it used to be.  Campaigns that show the Dark Ages for what it was can give you some small hope that we've progressed in the past 1000 years (and especially the past 100), which I honestly believe to be true.  Like you said, we have turned the idea of human rights into law; we have also placed limits on the use of power, and introduced the idea that government derives its legitimacy from the consent of the governed.  Horror still happens, but now it is recognized as such - what Crusader nation would have ever prosecuted soldiers for mistreating Saracens?  Even 100 years ago in the US, could any black man have sued police for mistreatment and won a civil judgment?  So, yes, we have a ways to go, but to say there has been no progress is unfairly pessimistic.Pogroms went totally unremarked in 1000 AD; no remorse, no international condemnation, no memorials, no promise of "never again."  Sanctuary only for those who had resources.  It was accepted as "business as usual."   There are parts of the world that are still medieval in outlook as I would characterize it.  Saudi Arabia has an absolute monarchy and men have a great deal of power over their wives.  Sudan has a tribal social structure and the Janjaweed marauders.   So "our modern world" also includes areas that are, for a number of reasons, still our medieval world.Good points.  Also, being free to beat your wife with a rod no thicker than your thumb, and forced conversions.  If we've made any progress, it's shown by the fact that we think the above are wrong and now act to ensure that they happen less often.  I'm not sure that Fusangite is right, because I don't know how much hypocrisy was ingrained into those orders.  That is, "chastity" may have meant "Don't sleep with well-bred free-born European Christian women," but had little or nothing to say about tavern girls, peasant women hoping for a nice gift, a Byzantine woman looking to keep her home safe during the sack of Constantinople, or the Arab Christian woman who serves in your castle in Acre.  Again, I really don't know what the code meant for them.</blockquote>

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