>
> "Crime" in the sense of "behaviors people find abhorrent" is not an
> institution. It's part of being a social animal, probably beginning
> historically the first time a therapsid mother swatted its cub's snout for
> stealing another cub's food. Punishment is hardly a strange concept either.
> If somebody, say, kills my wife, I am not going to sit around and drink tea
> and say, "ho-hum, he killed my wife, que sera sera." I am going to try to do
> very bad things to him out of this primitive animal desire called "desire
> for revenge."
> --- On Sat, 5/23/09, Peter Ward < <nevadabob at hotmail.co.uk>
I'm hardly a professional textual critic, but I very much doubt that Peter was suggesting we eliminate all feelings of abhorrence or vengance from the human psyche.