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To: FreeReign

Celebration of Justice Served, yes. Celebration for the need to met out such justice in the first place, no. We can have sympathy for victims of violent crimes, but not empathy unless we too have been a victim (such as in losing a loved one to a murderous tyrant or thug). Unless one has experienced that pain, there is no way of really identifying with those who have. Imagining the pain is not, and can never be the same as experiencing that pain.


4,916 posted on 12/30/2006 10:22:12 AM PST by SoldierDad (Proud Father of a 2nd BCT 10th Mountain Soldier fighting the terrorists in Iraq)
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To: SoldierDad
Celebration of Justice Served, yes. Celebration for the need to met out such justice in the first place, no.

Identify who on this thread celebrates for the latter and not the former.

4,921 posted on 12/30/2006 10:29:36 AM PST by FreeReign
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To: SoldierDad
Celebration of Justice Served, yes. Celebration for the need to met out such justice in the first place, no. We can have sympathy for victims of violent crimes, but not empathy unless we too have been a victim (such as in losing a loved one to a murderous tyrant or thug). Unless one has experienced that pain, there is no way of really identifying with those who have. Imagining the pain is not, and can never be the same as experiencing that pain in the present tense.

You're mixing apples with oranges.

Of course one would rather imagine pain than to actually experience pain. Doesn't mean one can't imagine emotional pain, drawing on real life similarities, without experiencing the pain for the moment.

For example a person who has dropped a cinder block on their toes has a great deal of empathy for those who have a cinder block landing on their toe in the present...no?

From experiences we all draw on in life, it's morally lazy not to be able to identify with the pain that a Saddam victim must feel and the joy a Saddam victim must feel when Saddam is finally executed.

4,924 posted on 12/30/2006 10:47:09 AM PST by FreeReign
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