thou shalt kill

I watched a Louis Theroux show last night. He was in California's San Quentin jail. Probably because that was nestling in the back of mind, this morning at work I started a conversation about capital punishment. I almost wish I hadn't.

One of my most and least endearing qualities is my black and white views on a great many subjects. Sal loves that about me (ha!) The death penalty is a perfect example of my on-off, yes-no attitude. It is wrong to kill people. End of. No need for any discussion. Premeditated killing of another human being is wrong. Always. That is my opinion, of course. But I am, of course, right. However, that does not stop folks disagreeing with me.

Things got a little bizarre. I sit between two people who, I am shocked and disappointed to discver, do not share my views. Their arguments have the same flaw. My stance simple; killing people is wrong, don't do it. My stance is internalised - I know it is wrong to kill a person therefore I know I must not kill therefore I know no-one should kill. Simple. Their stance is externalised. "They" should die because of "their" crimes. Neither of them seemed to get it. I pressed my point (of course.)

So, I asked, would you kill a person on death row? Would you look into their eyes as you pushed the needle in?
No, other people are paid to do that.
So, why couldn't you do it?
Silence. A telling silence.

Other obvious arguments employed. Innocent people are put to death. Acceptable risk? Of course not, we can only kill people we are certain are guilty. The person you kill, the bad guy, what about his family? He has a mother, father, brother, friends...what about the impact on them? Er... Whose laws? Australia's? Saudia Arabia's?

The debate got somewhat distrurbing. A selection of points made...bad people - it's genetic. So we kill their family as well? Death penalty for incitement to genocide. For speaking, albeit nasty-talk? They have it easy in jail and it costs me money. What price a human life? To my religious combatant I asked this - what about thou shalt not kill? Well, that commandment is open to interpretation. So you can chose which of (your) God's teachings you adhere to and which you can ignore? And you ignore "thou shalt not kill"!

It does genuinely sadden me. I argue long and hard and still fail to convince thoughtful, intelligent people that the taking of human life is wrong.

A shame. The philosophiocal path this debate leads to is "why is killing wrong?" And that is interesting. For the record, I am not an American college kid, so no need to panic dear reader. Now where is that Marilyn Manson album?