The Field of Honor

If I am to suffer for what I say, let me suffer by being proved an idiot and mocked for it. If you can't show I'm wrong, beating me up serves no purpose.

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

There's lumps you earn, and lumps you don't.

Mistakes of mine, sure, but I've never noticed that all suffering is deserved.

Everything that has been already said aside, there is also the matter of gender differences.

Women tend to be physically weaker than men. There are exceptions, of course; but in a toe-to-toe fight between an average man and an average woman, the woman would be at a significant disadvantage.

This, by the way, is the main reason why, both in our conception of honor and in the "romanticized" version of the old one that we are talking about, a male striking a female for any reason other than urgent self-defense is highly dishonourable, far beyond a male striking another male without cause.

So, if we accepted the idea that personal offenses should be dealt with with ritualized physical fights, what should a woman who has been insulted do? Should she, as in the "good old times", have to ask a friend or a relative to beat the offender and protect the honor of her helpless little self?

edited 24th May '11 12:43:28 AM by Carciofus

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

Well I know the French under Cardinal Richleau banned Duelling because it was essentially killing off about 3 dukes a month.

Its also because the idea of "trial by combat" became increasingly outmoded and people realised that (in general) God is not going to favour the righteous, but instead the person who has trained with a sword/pistol for most of his/her life.

Also you got it where people would cheat and run up and shoot someone in the chest after they had fired their pistol in the air, which happened one time a guy and his fiance were dueling.

Just in general it was killing people, and if you were the sort of person who actually cared about justice then it kind of didn't work to proove a point. I mean all it prooves is that you are the better swordsmen/marksman it doesn't proove the truth of your statements.

And your worried about politeness? You have no idea how often people insulted each other in the past, just because you think it was all prim and proper means bugger all. Look at the Diamond Affair that was designed to discredit Marie Antoinette, entire BOOKS were written specifically to defame other people, and since the owners were generally anonymous or strictly denied it NOTHING could be done about it.

Well, the OP was advocating a return to non-lethal forms of dueling - you know, boxing matches and the like. But good point, in the "good old times" people were every bit as unpolite as they are now, perhaps more.

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

I think in general people are assholes. And people will always be assholes. There ain't no changing the assholeness of humanity.

I mean looking at the sheer number of insulting books, plays and other media. And thats just the stuff we know, the image of a "more polite" past is so much a fiction of Victorian thinking that it makes me want to burst out laughing.

Oh yes and boxing simply prooves you stronger and, after fighting a few duels, more brain damaged. You want people to not insult you or your girlfriend? The only thing you could conceivably do is live inside forever and not communicate with anyone, its the only way to be sure.

As is? Honour can kiss the whitest part of my arse, its worth NOTHING and is a concept that has lead to people being put in nunneries, castrated and murdered because they didn't buy into it.

edited 24th May '11 1:37:31 AM by JosefBugman

@Drunk: The best revenge is living well my friend, just go about seducing bob's sister and when you get her in the sack 'accidentally' send the pictures to his phone.

It's a Win-Win.

hashtagsarestupid

I think that in general people are good, kind and well-intentioned. Sometimes they mess up, but these are honest mistakes — and they will apologize for them, if and when they notice them.

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

Well then you are far more idealistic than, my friend.

My outlook is everyone's an asshole to some degree. Some more than others, and some far less than average. But deep down, everyone has some asshole in them.

<Mod Hat ON>

This discussion of the philosophy of fighting dirty, is, I'm sure, quite cathartic.

But it's also utterly offtopic.

The topic was the concept of "the field of honor", that is, the idea of personal violence within a framework of rules as a socially acceptable response.

I'm going to lock this down as "irretrievably derailed".

<Mod Hat OFF>

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.