X-Message-Number: 17006 Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2001 10:11:41 -0400 From: Jeffrey Soreff <> Subject: Re: justice and mercy [Ettinger] >"Justice" is basically a matter of politics or expediency or practical >necessity. It works--more or less. But the shift toward mercy will almost >inevitably increase with time. Predicting that shift amounts to predicting the direction of future political shifts. In the US, over the last couple of decades, the death penalty has been reinstituted and the number of executions ramped up, "zero-tolerance" policies towards a whole range of infractions have been implemented by many of our institutions, and a considerable fraction of what used to be considered the social safety net has been dismantled. I, personally, prefer mercy, but I would not predict that it will reliably increase. Best wishes, -Jeff Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=17006