Quote Originally Posted by Donnadogsoth View Post
If there is "little reason to separate ourselves in this regard," why may a man not kill his neighbour? If you say, "because humans are social animals" or somesuch, that merely places a hurdle to be crossed. Why may a clever man not kill his neighbour if he can get away with it?
I don't want to be killed by my neighbour (or anyone else for that matter). Almost everyone else thinks the same way. I'm pretty sure you don't.

Most people don't want to kill their neighbour either*.

Hence, people generally agree not to kill each other*, and to "deal with"** those who do.


* Without good reason.
** This may or may not count as a "good reason" for breaking the more general "no killing" rule.


I don't know of any society that has not had a "no killing each other (without good reason)" rule. Even people like the Vikings (or the Mafia) had or have rules against that sort of thing. No Viking would be willing to go out raiding (in their view, a "good reason" for breaking the no-killing rule) if they thought their neighbours would pillage their homes while they were away. If you walked into a Mafia base and robbed/killed some of the people, the rest wouldn't just say "This guy is a robber and a murderer, just like us - what a great guy!".

No society that permitted random murder of its members could survive. It would either destroy itself, decide something else would be better, or be overthrown from within (or conquered from without) by people who agreed not to kill each other (but were prepared to work together to fight against the Random Murderers).