Bring back Seppuku!

I think that it'd be a fair expectation that politicians and important business executives committed suicide when their companies tanked or their policies and projects proved a disastrous failure.

At least, that societal expectation would make them much less likely to screw up.

Whaddayathink?

How about... no?

I'm gonna say no. Seppuku is very romantic, but eh...

What?

Politician enacts policy. Citizens come to regard it as a train wreck. Politician is expected to either slit his own throat, perform real, honest-to-Buddha seppuku with a wakizashi, or apply the .357 treatment to his own skull, as a rather final public acknowledgement of I screwed up, so I'm going to pay for it.

Businessowner embezzles money or enacts a disastrous policy. Company goes bankrupt. Businessowner is expected to open the drawer, grab the revolver or the wakizashi, man up and acknowledge I screwed y'all up, y'all are losing your money and it's my fault. I'm going to remove myself from the picture as an apology.

Instant Accountability, Just Add Water! Only possible problem I can think of is when the guys that fuck up pass the buck.

edited 21st Jun '11 7:46:02 AM by SavageHeathen

You know, it would be interesting to see the results of this. Not that I wish suicide on anyone.

But if their lives were at stake depending on how honestly a politician or corporate leader handled their careers, what kind of world would we live in?

How loudly, my friend, would I have to say "no" before you reconsidered?

"I've never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure." ~ Mark Twain

And you think this is a good idea? Kill people because they screwed up? Oh, sorry, have them commit suicide? Tomato, Tomahto.

Why not introduce the death penalty for jaywalking while you're at it, SH?

Some day SH, you'll find that killing people isn't an instant "fix" button to every one of lifes problems.

Only the politician is limited to a single shot

Unless the cunts get re-elected!

Either that, or stop all elections.

What's with all the pro-politico sentiment on OTC, all of a sudden?

Not so much "pro-politico sentiment" as realism backlash against the idea of politicians having to commit seppuku?

I hate politicians, but I don't mind the government, I do work for it after all.

It also kind of helps that, like most proposed political solutions made by anarchists, this happens to be an insanely dumb idea.

"Not so much "pro-politico sentiment" as realism backlash against the idea of politicians having to commit seppuku?"

I'm not just on about this thred.

Trolls do have death penalty for embezzling. That said, they have death penalty for a lot of things.

So, rather than resign after getting caught sexting, you would rather Representative W pulls out a sword and kills himself?

No. Just... No.

Thinking about it further, imposing something like that on, say, the heads of AIG and similar companies does appeal to my vindictive side. The problem, of course, is that even having them kill themselves does absolutely nothing to help the victims of whatever they did - it doesn't give back money lost, lives lost, health damaged, etc, since wills (and sometimes life insurance) is still in effect from suicide.

You do realize that companies tanking isn't the sole responsibility of the executives, right? Some businesses tank due to competition, a lousy economy, poor marketing, etc. Sure, some executives from failed companies are corrupt, but that doesn't mean that all the executives are.

Get back to me on the politicians when you get everyone to agree on what constitutes a policy failure.

It's not really a pro-political sentiment so much as it is the knowledge that it's a better than the "won't last longer than a generation solution" I'm seeing from anarchism.

@Ninja: What about the petty satisfaction of at least the asshole who screwed us over is dead? At the very least, it brings closure.

Savage Heathen: I have a teacher who unfairly docked me points on an assignment because they disagreed with me. It would bring me closure to kill them. Doesn't make it right or justified.

So this is about appeasing a caveman sense of morality?

^^^

Not all companies that fail will fail because an asshole was trying to victimize you. And not all political decisions that you don't like are because a politician is trying to screw you over. And sometimes a policy decision that you don't like was put into place with perfectly honest intentions, and simply didn't work out as planned. Political policy causes all sorts of unforseen ripples which can have unintended consequences.

Now given, sometimes this is definitely true, but I don't really trust you to determine which is which.

edited 21st Jun '11 8:43:10 AM by Barkey

I rather see it as surrendering to the humans' baser instinct.

edited 21st Jun '11 8:44:36 AM by Blurring