George Bernard Shaw Quote

"It is the deed that teaches, not the name we give it.
Murder and capital punishment are not opposites that cancel one another,
but similars that breed their own kind."

by:	George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish comic dramatist
Source:	quoted in Amnesty Update, January/February 1990
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Categories:	Compassion, Death, Justice, Punishment
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-- Anonymous
I have never understood the so-called-Christian position that believes and promotes the Commandment "Thou shalt not kill," but supports killing other humans. They oppose abortion, but killing adults is a moral and admired behavior. It's the hypocrisy that offends me.  -- Katie, Cambria      1
Objectively, the most starkly hypocritical figures among us are they who are exponents of the wanton destruction, by means of abortion and infanticide, of the lives of those who, among us all, are most nearly innocent. Virtually unfailingly, are advocates of abortion ardent opponents of capital punishment, identifying, as they do, not with the innocent but with those for whom capital punishment is, under certain, stringently defined, circumstances, entirely condign.  -- Patrick Henry, Red Hill      3 1
I'm with Katie on this one.  It is questionable whether the right to self-defense includes a right to violate tenets of Christianity by 'punishing' another via violating the same 'law.'  The old law was an eye for an eye, Jesus said 'turn the other cheek' and 'forgive those that persecute you,' and now there's no limit to what an eye is worth but it is often everything that you have.  Sinners convicting sinners and rendering judgement as if they were the hand of God.  Again it is about power rather than justice, which is how the Roman Catholic Church had corrupted the essence of Christianity and became a conquering army waging 'holy war.' The problem becomes more obvious when the making of laws are placed in the hands of men who use them to pilfer and command the populace.  Where does our justifiable punishment of criminals come from?  Why does the US have the largest prison population per capita in the world? As a result, THIEVERY has become the modus operandi for those who are to judge thievery and punish thieves — how is this different than murderers issuing capital punishment?  As far as I can tell, the justice system has simply become a license to steal, threaten, kidnap, imprison, and kill for a career path with a pension — all paid for by the spoils.  -- E Archer, NYC
I give it one star because of the accuracy of the first sentence — a thumb's down for all else.  The erroneously translated ten words/commandments that reads in most versions of the Bible: "Thou shalt not kill" would be more accurately read (through ancient Rabbinical action, linguistics, tradition and doctrine: 'Murder {ratsach — ('rä·tsakh')} does not occur Celestially.' The full concept of justice must be understood before the capital action would even begin to make sense. To my knowledge, no justice system, or even a semi-related system thereto exists anywhere in the world. Katie above, along with most Christians only relate to illicit (antithetical to natural law and justice) systems at legal positivism when carnal man acts as a god. Within the carnal god's reasoning from a legal positivism's perspective, capital punishment and murder ARE! the same. If a system of natural law and justice were the norm, the deeds of capital actions (not punishment) would be deeds that teach, not the names given. I happen to be EXTREMELY anti-Capital Punishment in the current anti-justice system. Another example of the accuracy of the first sentence is the Patriot act (by deed — anti-liberty and inalienable rights, tyranny by anti-patriotic despots).  -- Mike, Norwalk      1
Sorry, but if someone, by their own actions, has shown that they do not value the life of others, why should we value their life? If someone has become a danger to innocent around them, and is gone "too far", how is it that keeping them around will "save lives"? Often people go really far into moral-and-mind-bending-rabbit-holes, only trying to deny even the most clear truths: that some people have chosen (or created, doesn't matter the source) to not be people any more, to consider themselves superior, in right to inflict harm at will. Prison sometimes can help the society, but many times it doesn't. And imprisonment for life is to me no better than capital punishment. Why should a rapist or a serial killer have the right to elicit so much trouble and expenses (prisons, guards, food, shelter), when they would never treat other the same way?  -- Felipe, São Paulo      1
Part of the problem is due to the fact that people are not permitted to defend themselves, they are told to let the burglars take whatever they want because it is not worth losing your life over material things. (A burglar can sue you for harming him.)  It is a shift from being personally responsible for one's security (like every other living animal) to being dependent upon a police state and justice system after the fact.  There would be less crime, first of all, if criminals could not expect their victims to be powerless.  Secondly, 'punishment' could be delivered instantly with deadly defensive force by the armed non-victim, thus serving as a deterrent to other would-be perpetrators.  Prisons and punishment are the tools of tyrants against the opposition, which is why we must ever be cautious about depending on such tools for security — inevitably a corrupt system becomes more corrupt until everyone is in need of permission to live.  -- E Archer, NYC

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