“Out, damned spot. Out, I say!”
Lady Macbeth
Cruelty: An Overview
The American Indian in the times of the Old West would best his foe, cut off his genitals and stuff them in the mouth. Historians tell us that the American Indian didn’t want to face his foe in the Afterlife. I cry baloney. It was the ultimate domination, the ultimate indignity, the ultimate defeat: the man was still alive.
I know that it is not fair to lump a thousand tribes as one group, the American Indian. There were reports of torture like being staked to an ant hill or being buried up to the neck in the desert with only the head exposed; helpless and in pain.
Caligula did that too. He was the Emperor of Rome 2000 years ago. He’d have his enemies or those who offended him buried up to their necks in the big gladiator arenas. Then men on horses would play some sport, racing up and down. I can hear the cheers today.
People have a taste for it. The auto-da-fe, burning at the stake, was a public spectacle in France as was the guillotine. Again, in the Old West, people would come from a hundred miles away and bring picnic baskets to see a public hanging.
When invaders would attack a village, the women knew that they’d be raped. But maybe nothing so horrific as the Rape of Nanjing during the Second World War. Look it up if you want, I won’t repeat it here.
Established in history, cruelty a is part of war and victory and defeat. But, in all of the above, children are always off limits. When sacking a village, everyone might get killed including the babies; but they’d never see cruelty or torture.
In Clint, Texas here in the US of A, within this week, something like 350 children were stuffed for I don’t know how long in a detention center designed for 125. Babies, youngsters, children were not given soap or a toothbrush. Ten year olds had to care for babies. The cost for each child is 700 dollars a day, more than a room in Trump Tower, and they lived in this squalor. Morally and historically, this one hurts.
If dogs were treated this way, half the country would pick up shot-guns and go set things to right.
The Profound Bartender 