"I should've slipped and stabbed him by accident."
POSTED BY: ANTHONYT
UPDATED: Saturday, December 22, 2012 19:05
VIEWED: 3235
PAGE 3 of 3
Quote:
Originally posted by HKCavalier:
If I were in charge of a top secret government time travel program involving Adolph Hitler, I'd have my operatives go back in time and befriend Hitler's mother and father and become close family friends when their child Adolph was born. My operatives would nurture and aid the young Adolph as much as they could, even patronizing his artistic career. Wouldn't that be great? Why not turn Hilter into a great artistic celebrity long before he turned in frustration to politics? I mean, I could myself go back and teach him cubism and fauvism way ahead of the curve! Only then, the great dictator would come out of Spain, a failed artist whom everyone accused of copying Hitler's genius. His supporters would march down the street chanting, "Heil Picasso!"
You're not the only one to think of that!
Mercy can be a Weapon, only... a different kind of one, a light against the darkness that it cannot break so easily.
There's a short story amongst Andrew Vachss work where a girl related to a notorious serial killer winds up convincing a sorceress to bring him back across the veil, and when the sorceress asks her what age he should be the girl insists upon newborn - the sorceress, who is very, VERY far from nice, is somewhat horrified and asks her what awful thing he must have done to her name that she would wish to slay him as a baby.
Quote:
"I do not wish to kill him for what he has done to my name, I wish to RAISE him... so that he can HONOR it."
I won't say that vengeance doesn't have its place, but more often than not it just feeds a destructive cycle.
-Frem
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Taking that further, it would be much more uplifting to read about people wondering if they could have in some way helped this sickeningly disturbed young man when he was young and vulnerable. Instead of fantasizing about killing him.
And that leads further to who else may need help at this moment in time who could potentially walk down a dark road in the future. Taking that sort of gamble needs a lot more courage than violence and punishment.
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Quote:
Originally posted by AgentRouka:
And that leads further to who else may need help at this moment in time who could potentially walk down a dark road in the future. Taking that sort of gamble needs a lot more courage than violence and punishment.
Not really a gamble at all - if it fails to work then nothing is lost that would not have otherwise been, but if it works...
It's just that the payoff is so long in coming that most folks used to instant-gratification cannot stick with it.
I've at least the benefit of seeing it borne out quite a bit, in fact the person now in charge of CoTL was one of the first persons rescued and helped back when it was just VI, and a few of my guards are also folks who've been helped as well.
Mind you not everyone self-destructs the same way, as many of them wind up taking it out on themselves via drug use, suicide and things other than violence, but any way you slice it that is still a tragedy averted.
Hell, even when you CAN'T save them - it's still worth it.
Case in point: Kathleen Edward.
http://www.annarbor.com/news/tree-town-toy-owners-arrange-shopping-spr
ee-for-dying-7-year-old-cyber-bullied-by-neighbors/
She passed on on January, but still we managed to enrich her existence, and that of others, by holding that princess day event.
-Frem
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I'm not going to deny the idea that killing Hitler before he could kill others is appealing to me, but still more appealing is Cav's idea of making sure it doesn't happen, plus his Picasso thing made me laugh. I think this is the best thing I've ever read from Cav, most of what he writes doesn't make any sense to me, but this was good stuff.
"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya
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