Like you said, I think it depends on the way a person looks at it. If the one person were killed to save the lives of many other people, then perhaps that death is justified. And yet the loss of a human life (no matter what kind of life the person has lived) is still a loss. If that person is dead, he is no longer a threat in any kind of way, and yet if he is dead, he no longer has a chance to do anything-be it good or bad.
Something that Gandalf says to Frodo comes to mind.
"Frodo: It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance. Gandalf: Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death and judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of the Ring."
i've struggled with this quite a bit, and so therefore i don't really know what side i'm on in this issue, but since you've already got one opinion in here that i do agree with quite a bit, i'm going to play the devil's advocate and give you another side of it.
think about if a family member or someone close to you was brutually murdered by an individual, and it was very, very, very clear that he (or she) did it. this isn't the first time he's killed someone. true, if he was killed he/she will never have a chance to do anything good or bad if killed. but neither again will this person close to you who was murdered.
and again, touchee to the person who made the first comment. i'm still struggling with it, as i said, and i understand the points of both sides. i think you get what i mean.
and i also can't say "devil's advocate" without thinking of mr. gaylord and how often he used to say that. so i've brought about bad thoughts for myself. oh, sophomore year.
Statistically speaking, you would be serving the greater good by putting the psycho out of commission. But don't think killing's the way to go.It's obvious that if someone's going around killing people, they need a bit of help, mentally speaking.
Now, you could put this on a larger scale and say that an individual country is a threat to the wellbeing of the world. What would have happened if Hitler didn't meet resistance? What if we didn't fight fire with fire and start killing back? I have a feeling it wouldn't have been pretty. The stars on our flag might have been swastikas by now.
It's one of the many impossible questions in life. I say we all just take a nap and stop killing people. There's a solution.
yet another angle on the issue is that if you kill a murderer, you're not bringing back the people he or she killed, you're just raising the death toll one more person. not that that's looking at the whole issue at all, just a comment. i'm too tired to think about the fact that the murderer could keep killing people. on another note (and a bad pun if you think about that regarding your comments about auditions...cringe) i completely avoided the whole saying goodbye to people issue by being gone and basically cut off from communication from july 25 until now. congratulations me, for being shut off from anything happening in kennebunk for an entire month...and now, to attempt to catch up...should be interesting. catch you later jules
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If the one person were killed to save the lives of many other people, then perhaps that death is justified. And yet the loss of a human life (no matter what kind of life the person has lived) is still a loss.
If that person is dead, he is no longer a threat in any kind of way, and yet if he is dead, he no longer has a chance to do anything-be it good or bad.
Something that Gandalf says to Frodo comes to mind.
"Frodo:
It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance.
Gandalf:
Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death and judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of the Ring."
Anyway, that's what I think. :)
I'm going to miss Colby a lot too.
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i agree with you by the way
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think about if a family member or someone close to you was brutually murdered by an individual, and it was very, very, very clear that he (or she) did it. this isn't the first time he's killed someone. true, if he was killed he/she will never have a chance to do anything good or bad if killed. but neither again will this person close to you who was murdered.
and again, touchee to the person who made the first comment. i'm still struggling with it, as i said, and i understand the points of both sides. i think you get what i mean.
and i also can't say "devil's advocate" without thinking of mr. gaylord and how often he used to say that. so i've brought about bad thoughts for myself. oh, sophomore year.
Reply
Now, you could put this on a larger scale and say that an individual country is a threat to the wellbeing of the world. What would have happened if Hitler didn't meet resistance? What if we didn't fight fire with fire and start killing back? I have a feeling it wouldn't have been pretty. The stars on our flag might have been swastikas by now.
It's one of the many impossible questions in life. I say we all just take a nap and stop killing people. There's a solution.
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on another note (and a bad pun if you think about that regarding your comments about auditions...cringe) i completely avoided the whole saying goodbye to people issue by being gone and basically cut off from communication from july 25 until now. congratulations me, for being shut off from anything happening in kennebunk for an entire month...and now, to attempt to catch up...should be interesting.
catch you later
jules
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