DBWI: Murder Illegal

Have any of you read Harry Tortoisehawk's A Single Law series of novels? It posits that murder was made illegal and made one of the worst possible crimes to commit. So what would have happened if that law was made by Hammurabi?
 
Wait, what, this would make sense? Last week I had to duel a man from down the street who claimed I had insulted his sister's honor- are you saying that in this hypothetical, even that would have been illegal? Preposterous! I think humans are far too focused on blood feuds and honor for such a scenario to work. And let's not get into how the Coatlists would feel about this- don't they believe that human sacrifice is necessary?
 

Nikephoros

Banned
And let's not get into how the Coatlists would feel about this- don't they believe that human sacrifice is necessary?

That is a misconception. Only Orthodox Coatlists believe in necessary human sacrifice. Reformed Coatlists are dead set against it.
 

ninebucks

Banned
Well, the definition of murder is to kill unlawfully, and there are laws in place throughout the world that limit the right to kill under certain circumstances. For example, here in Sexeland, provincial law forids killing a clergyman on sacred ground, a captain on his ship or a legitimately-conceived infant below the age of five months.

So posit instead that the definition of murder is widened significantly, I'm not sure how significantly, maybe there would need to be some kind of universally-agreed upon legitimate grievance, or maybe even a blanket ban on the killing of certain kinds of people, (women, children, the elderly, etc.)

One certainty, according to the theories of Carolus Daruian, is that our race would be much weaker without the constant weeding off of those who can't defend themselves. The physical difference between the people of the Orient, (who relied on state intervention to settle their grievances), and the people of the Empire of the Entire Universe, (who had engaged in mortal combat for centuries), at the time when contact was made was huge, and probably helped ensure the domination of the former.
 
My gods, how could society function without the occasional necessary killing? Do you honestly expect an honorable person to just sit back and wait for the authorities to deal with a crime to your honor? How could a populous area deal with undesirable elements without the basic right to vigilant civilian justice? You'd need armed soldiers on the streets to deal with every petty crime around, and what about syndicate crime? Such organized thieves aready have shown the ability to bribe governors...without the people's basic right to rise up and exterminate such scum they could take over the very streets! And what about corruption in the government? Can we honestly expect the ruling classes to police themselves? A good uprising now and then keeps the bastards honest.

OOC: note that "He needed killin'" is a justifiable defense in Texas court! :cool:
 

ninebucks

Banned
Well, for one thing, the carrying of weapons would most likely be illegal, that's for sure.

That's just ridiculous. Walking around without a weapon is practically asking to be killed. Even when people have no intention to take a life, they still always keep a weapon on themselves to deter attackers. Even some kind of insane anti-homicide regime came to power, I don't see how they'd be able to stop people from defending themselves.
 
<How are we communicating here?
In a world without basic moral/legal codes I doubt the internet (or a hell of a lot of things before it) would be invented....>
 
<How are we communicating here?
In a world without basic moral/legal codes I doubt the internet (or a hell of a lot of things before it) would be invented....>

OOC: I think we're all hacking into each other's secure personal information doohickeys. Which themselves pirate the emergency broadcast airwaves, because why not.
 
Well i do belive the sect known as higlanders with their "There can be only one" wouldnt be as popular in that world.

I would be in prison for life since i tend to overreact when people say stuff they mean in fun but i dont think its so. I killed a man for taking my parkingspace yesterday and two days ago i wounded a girl after she almost ran me over with a bike.

I wounder if trafficbattles would be as common in such a world. Didnt you hear what happened in that city in Saxony two weeks ago. 15 people in a crash and they brought along any weapon they could find and it resultet in 8 of them dead from different weapons, 2 dead from the crash, 10 innocent bystanders killed and over 25 people injured
 
I think the Tortoisehawk book supposes that "Mortal Punishment" is the perview of the governing bodies, not for mere civilians. Sounds horribly anti-democratic to me.
 
Well, without the innovation that came from the need to equip and train one's self for daily personal war, we certainly wouldn't have developed Calisthenics or acrobatics to any degree. Without precision weapon-making we probably would never have developed smelting, and without any concept of enlightened civilian justice, democracy could not form.

In short, we'd be a bunch of fat tribals sitting in caves scurrying under the whims of one big fat tribals sitting in a hut.

Quite chilling, really.
 
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