Nature in her ineffable wisdom knows all about
the untameable passions of humanity for
after all she designed them, their specific purpose
linked inextricably to existence itself. Yet paired
with the autonomic response of self-defence is an
intimate sense of justice, close cousin of survival.
The ancients knew well the dispositions of
human interaction; gregarious among their own
hostile toward all others, the risk of lethal violence
expressing the demons of human thought and reaction
never suppressed by the predictive warning adage
of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth --for
passion dominates, not reason. Punishment for crimes
committed has become the hallmark of civilization
but even justice carried out is no guarantee the
offender will not reoffend. And so it is that the ultimate
deadly offence against humanity that sought to annihilate
an entire people saw global justice exacted as the
perpetrators cowered in shame and sought to expunge
their crime with humility and broad reparations.
Only the victims know the hallmarks of a resurgent drive
of dehumanization and the emerging prospect of mass
death; their collective memory has not forgotten the
symptoms and knows most intimately that a barrier once
breached will inevitably be breached yet again.
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