It is fascinating how corporal punishment has dropped out of our culture; witness, for example, the number of people who have ideas such as "humane execution". I think to the extent that a lot of writing from previous ages is to a certain extent emotionally inaccessible to us - that there's a difference in mindset between people who have suffered or witnessed (severe) corporal punishment (of adults) and those who have not.
I'm pretty sure that the disappearance of corporal punishment from our culture is a Good Thing, but it all seems so alien to me that it's hard to say anything certain about it at all.
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Date: 2010-07-30 10:13 am (UTC)I'm pretty sure that the disappearance of corporal punishment from our culture is a Good Thing, but it all seems so alien to me that it's hard to say anything certain about it at all.