Reply #196: I go with Ezekiel 33 on this one.

[Igel]

Indeed, whenever I hear about any death. Even Palestinian or Pakhtun suicide bombers.

"Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

"Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth."


There is justice: The sinner should die, a starving person should be punished for stealing bread for his children. There is love and mercy: The sinner should stop sinning and be virtuous, but when we see a starving person steal, we should feel sympathy. Unless I'm completely cynical and closed-minded, when a starving person has to steal I can only infer that those with enough, including me, failed to do their duty and help. It means that with death also comes the cessation of any hope of having that person stop doing wrong and start doing right. This goes for every death. Even Stalin's, even Hitler's, even, when the time comes, Mugabe's. The amount I mourn a death isn't contingent on how I judge that person's life, but on the amount of attention I give that person's death.

One doesn't need to find pleasure in another's death--in fact, one shouldn't, ever, it diminishes the person finding pleasure and renders him/her less human. But there's also justice, and the appropriate word for seeing it accomplished isn't "pleasure", I think, but "satisfaction". If you find pleasure in seeing a person caged like an animal, there's something wrong. But that's second place in my system of values--an essential second place, to be sure, but still second.