domination, The Mechanics of Virtue, Matt Berry, aphorism 176

176


What if domination were a mechanism whose function ended in our professed desire to “compensate” a crime? We would then measure out the punishment to balance the beam against our own unsatisfied appetite for domination.  We would need to find someone to punish, and anyone who interfered with the flow of this need would become himself an obstacle to be removed.  He in fact becomes the object of our frustration, and consequently an additional target for punishment.  Thus, even if we were in a position to overcome our drive for dominance and argue against this reflex for punishment, we would then find ourselves at one extreme of their scale for having taken a central position on ours.



A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism



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