Resist Not Evil |
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absolute monarchies administered animal armies and navies believe beneficence body brutal called cause CHAPTER character charity child circumstances civil government CLARENCE DARROW commit common condemn condition conduct courts crime and punishment criminal cruel cruelty cure death death penalty depend destroy disease doctrine of non-resistance earth endless enforced extortion fact father feeling force and violence gatling guns guilt guns HALDEMAN-JULIUS hands hatred heart helpless human law human soul imprisonment infinite instincts jailers jails judge justice kind kleptomania labor land lives malice means ment mob law moral nation natural law never outcast pass judgment passion peace penal code penal institutions penal laws penitentiary poor prevent crime prisons produce public hangings punishment purpose reach resist not evil rulers ruling class scaffolds society soldiers strength suffering teach temptations theory true vicious victim violate violence and force weak wise witchcraft wrong
Popular passages
Page 22 - ... only get on the right side of the priest who gave you the hot iron, you had a good chance of escaping punishment. If you did not, you suffered very severely. The ordeal by water was a different thing. The ordeal by water consisted in tying the criminal hand and foot and throwing him into the water. If he sank, he was innocent. If he swam, he was guilty. Before this ordeal took place, the following solemn invocation was addressed to the water. I am going to read to you the actual words of the...
Page 4 - Ye have heard that it hath been said: An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy- right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Page 25 - America have drawn great crowds of spectators, sometimes reaching into the tens of thousands, to witness the value that the state places on human life. But finally, even stupid legislators began to realize that these scenes of violence, brutality and crime bred their like upon those who came to see. Even governments discovered that many acts of violence followed a pubilc hanging. The hatred of the state which calmly took a human life engendered endless hatred as its fruit. And in all countries that...
Page 62 - It is only the state that ever lays its hands in anger on the non-resistant. Neither would non-resistance in the state or individual indicate cowardice or weakness or lack of vital force. The ability and inclination to use physical strength is no indication of bravery or tenacity to life. The greatest cowards are often the greatest bullies. Nothing is cheaper and more common than physical bravery. In the lower animals it is more pronounced than in man. The bulldog and the fighting cock are quite...
Page 12 - ... these rulers have depopulated their kingdoms and carried ruin and destruction to every portion of the earth for gold and power. Not only do these European rulers keep many millions of men whose only trade is war, but these must be supported in worse than useless idleness by the labor of the poor. Still other millions are trained to war and are ever ready to answer to their master's call, to desert their homes and trades and offer up their lives to satisfy the vain ambitions of the ruler of the...
Page 54 - ... furnishes no redress. Either it does not come within the provisions of the law or else those who are charged with its enforcement do not care to reach this sort of extortion which is the only kind that really affects the world. In either case it shows that the penal code is made and enforced by the ruling class, not upon themselves, but to keep the weak at the bottom of the social scale. The law forbids swindling at least in certain ways, and yet a large part of business consists in making the...
Page 25 - If terrorism is the object aimed at, death should again be sub'stituted for the various crimes, great and small, which ever justified taking human life. Death, too, should be administered in the most cruel way. Boiling, the rack, wild beasts, and slow fires should be the methods sought. It should be steadfastly remembered by all squeamish judges and executioners that one vigorous punishment would prevent a thousand crimes. But more than all this, death should be in the most public way.
Page 60 - turn the other cheek" or to "resist not evil" may seem at first glance to have no support in the facts of life, but after all that which makes for a higher humanity, a longer life, and a more vigorous community, is the true philosophy.
Page 54 - The daily papers are filled to overflowing with lying aovertisements, each contradicting the other. Our fences, rocks and buildings are defaced with vulgar, hideous lies in order to swindle men out of their much coveted cash. All our merchants and tradesmen frantically call out their lies in every form, that they may sell their ware for a larger price than they are really worth. And yet, to all of this, the criminal code has no word to say. This is not the class of swindlers it was made to reach....
Page 57 - ... else, punishment falls short. Wherever the judgment of courts enters it is to corrupt and to destroy. The misery and suffering entailed on man by scaffolds, racks, blocks, dungeons and jails has never yet begun to be told. Blood and misery and degradation has marked the administration of punishment Since man first penned his fellow men, Like brutes, within an iron pen. Let any reasoning being consider the tens of thousands who have been burned, and hanged, and boiled, and otherwise put to death...