The thing is that there was no one attitude to dueling. Attitudes and practices differed greatly in different times and places.
Some people treated it as a pointless formality, while others treated it as a license to Get Away With Murder. (See Andrew Jackson)
Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's PlayWe are at a point in most first world countries where it is frowned upon to solve a verbal disagreement by murdering the offending party. I would like to see that trend continuing, personally.
Visit my contributor page to assist with the "I Like The Cheeses" project!↑Except for the part where any idiot with more money and time than a person who works all day, erry day to feed their family, can hire a good trainer nonexclusiveor spend their time training and thus become a more unkillable and "righteous" man than merely John from Neighborhood.
If it wasn't for that particular detail, I'd agree with you.
edited 30th Jan '11 10:39:08 AM by SilentReverence
Fanfic Recs orwellianretcon'd: cutlocked for committee or for Google?So you would conditionate that a family can feed themselves to the parent(s) simply "sucking at fighting", be it because they spend their time, you know, feeding their family, or not, or the children spending their time preparing for duels instead of, you know, getting an education?
It would be just like with lawyers today, except that the idiots would have the chance and pleasure to deal the damage themselves.
Fanfic Recs orwellianretcon'd: cutlocked for committee or for Google?Working out and learning to fight is not something that everyone can just do. There are a lot of body types in the world, and some people are just naturally inclined towards more physical activity, so they'd always have the advantage. Meanwhile, anyone can theoretically become a millionaire, under the right circumstances. It's pretty much the same situation.
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More importantly, it's not something that people should have to do to avoid being put into a situation where they are either going to be killed, or lose honor for not giving someone else the opportunity to kill them, over a verbal disagreement.
And it's not like rich people weren't top dogs back in the days of duels anyway. As always, they had the option of paying others to do their fighting (and dieing) for them.
edited 30th Jan '11 11:34:29 AM by Meeble
Visit my contributor page to assist with the "I Like The Cheeses" project!^^^ Ah, I can sympathise with the sentiment, but really, that's not true, either. Even with guns, some people are just naturally inclined towards better predictive thought and hand-eye coordination than others. And bravery, for that matter. And willingness to kill.
^^ Agreed.
^ They're a nightmare as far as gardening is concerned, but the other things..? o_O
Welcome To TV Tropes | How To Write An Example | Text Formatting Rules | List Of Shows That Need Summary | TV Tropes Forum | Know The Staff^^Bravery, skill and killing instinct don't matter in this case; a novice with a gun can kill a guy who's spent the last 15 years training in martial arts; the Samurai learned that the hard way.
Besides you could use that same argument for hand to hand combat; just because a guy is bigger and stronger doesn't always mean he has what it takes to beat you.
^^ Holy shit. Rape deer. That's it, we're all doomed.
As to the other, I was thinking the deer would probably just kill the cat for getting too close to the fawn, but then it goes and mauls a random dog, wtf? Evil deer.
^ Accuracy and nerve matter. The guy who knows how to aim well and isn't afraid to kill is going to shoot first, and is more likely to hit.
And of course it applies to any kind of fight. Equality is a myth.
edited 30th Jan '11 11:49:12 AM by BobbyG
Welcome To TV Tropes | How To Write An Example | Text Formatting Rules | List Of Shows That Need Summary | TV Tropes Forum | Know The StaffI'm afraid I'm not seeing how bringing back a system from a time period when violent crime was enormously more common than it is today (largely thanks TO that system) is going to somehow lower the rates of violent crime.
This seems more like LAR Pers fantasizing about having an excuse to fight people.
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samurai used guns, dude. and they were damn good with them.
edited 30th Jan '11 12:02:35 PM by Bask
Wow, really Bobby? Is the best reason anybody can come up with "BUT SOME PEOPLE AREN'T AS ATHLETIC SO IT ISN'T FAIR!"
What's the point of a competition if everyone is on a carbon copy level playing field? Some people are better at shit than others.
What I'm saying is that I don't see how this is any "fairer" or more "equal" than money being the deciding factor, except that at least when it's money you're less likely to get shot in the process. Life isn't fair, and it never will be.
Welcome To TV Tropes | How To Write An Example | Text Formatting Rules | List Of Shows That Need Summary | TV Tropes Forum | Know The Staff"Wow, really Bobby? Is the best reason anybody can come up with "BUT SOME PEOPLE AREN'T AS ATHLETIC SO IT ISN'T FAIR!"
What's the point of a competition if everyone is on a carbon copy level playing field? Some people are better at shit than others."
Maybe if the competition didn't hinge on your life I'd be inclined to agree with you. A level playing field is necessary when say, you're pitting two people against each other in a foot race to determine life or death.
In a world where capital punishment for criminals who have been convicted by due process of law is widely controversial and is banned in many places, why are we considering legalised murder?
Look at the Twain or Dickens novels where duelling is mocked, look at the books by Lermontov or Dostoevsky or Turgenev for examples of stupid reasons for doing it, or Hamilton being killed by a sitting vice president for an absurd reason, or Lincoln making a mockery of duelling when challenged to one.
I will meet anyone who disagrees with pistols tomorrow at dawn.

I don't like an idea where the person in the right is decided by the strongest sword arm.
The term "Great Man" is disturbingly interchangeable with "mass murderer" in history books.