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Really? In a mob situation? When you are hyped up on God knows what and you've got a gun in your hand and adrenaline in your veins, the tyrant that subjected you to a brutally fascist regime openly supplying arms to terrorists and supporting hatred around the globe? You would not only hesitate to kill this monster but you would take him with you to jail? I don't believe you.
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When in doubt, I ask: What would Sam Vimes do?
Here I'm not in doubt, but I still agree with the Commander. I've found that as I grow older the frequency in which I personally face difficult problems that will impact other people increases, a few of which have literally been a matter of life and death. Whether or not I do or can make a difference when these occasions roll around anyway is not generally known until after the fact, but at the time that is irrelevant (and a dangerous distraction). I don't know whether your choices make you who you are or are determined by who you are. Either way these moments define you.
If they were a simple matter of good and evil they would not be difficult. The choice is usually between easy and right. And the path of least resistance is just
so desirable.
This here is emphatically not one of those moments for any of us. But I know what I've learned, and I know what is right. Killing an evil dictator in cold blood after capturing him is so easy, for everyone concerned. But it is absolutely not right. Doing what's right, making change for the better, resisting that old reptilian portion of our brain, working against the tide of social and actual entropy, these all require very hard work. Few worthwhile things do.
When it comes to imprisoned criminals and monsters, treating them like human beings is right, and it is essential for society. The most important reason is not the benefit of the prisoner, but the benefit of us. It keeps us civilised, keeps us human. Since the problems in Libya this year first began, the most misused word in the media was "brutalise". This does not mean treating others in a brutal fashion. It is one of those rare words that does not describe the impact of an action on the victim, but the impact on the one performing that action. Gaddafi did not brutalise him people, he brutalised his men, and him self. He made them into brutes. And our backward cries for quick and like "justice" on our criminals, little more than revenge, well, that is us on the teetering edge of brutalising ourselves.
Know this: anyone who can abuse and kill the lowest among us, be that a convicted criminal, some poor beggar on the street, helpless child or wretched dog, they are someone to watch out for. They could do the same to anyone of us. One day they'll become capable of that. And that goes for demanding or condoning the same of someone too.
