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To: PresbyRev
That is heading in the right direction. I think that is an interesting idea....mentioning the need for national restraint from the capacity of people in power to let their depravity fully rear itself, then a smaller scale...groups, then individual need for restraint. I can't think of any individual examples right now where the conditions were ripe for depraved behavior due to no mitigating forces. You have helped me along the line with examples for that, but I need to think about how to illustrate that a lack of outside restraints unleashed their true evil potential.
15 posted on 09/13/2002 6:37:05 PM PDT by rwfromkansas
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To: rwfromkansas
My brain is sort of fried, as I'm trying to get a revised website up and having trouble w/ the ftp'ing. So, I may babble a bit, this is sort of stream of consciousness.

It would seem to me, that on an individual level, the restraint is knowledge of the law - whether you were taking a theonomic, natural or civil approach. So, John Doe knows he shouldn't kill his wife. But, because he becomes jacked up on crack or discovers she is 'cheating' on him, etc. he pops her with his pistol. That is expression of individual depravity - in spite of law, in disregard of sanction. I suppose what I am thinking is that individual sin/law breaking/violation of others, is itself an example of the disregard of social restraint/law.

Indian tribes in America before the settlement warred, killed, enslaved. Yet, they had tribal customs/laws. In the novel 'Lord of the Flies' - even on the island, the boys had set up some bare type of social stratification, mores and rules. Only a Robinson Crusoe type figure would lack 'social restraint.' So, it isn't 'lack' of outside restraint, but depravity/sin/lawbreaking in spite of 'restraint.' (?) As I say, I'm going pretty cross-eyed and can't myself think of an individual ex./w/o social restraints/constraints on his/her action.

16 posted on 09/13/2002 7:09:52 PM PDT by PresbyRev
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