Adam:
Yes, I agree that for most, violence is used because their minds prove insufficient to the occasion. People are monkeys. I wish there was less violence in the world. However, that is human behaviour. Violence itself is a force, like wind or gravity; it just is. The only thing good or bad about it is the use it is given, the purpose.
Strike the terms "good" and "bad" and I'd agree.
One who derives sexual pleasure from the suffering of another. Since sexual pleasure is rather a preferble thing and not a last consideration, sadism would be a primary drive of the sadist, rather than a last resort.
Good. Strike "sexual", it's a red herring.
I see my argument is still rather juvenile. Bear with me, if you will.
I can see two reasons to enjoy the suffering of another. One is that one takes pleasure because of some sort of neurological quirk, a sort of reverse of the empathic pleasure one feels from the pleasure of another.
The other is enjoying the suffering of another as a form of revenge, either on the person who is suffering or on the world. I believe many who would not be termed sadists yet who enjoy inflicting/watching another suffer fall under this category.
The first group of people cannot be described as weak for feeling this. If they exist in a pure form. Perhaps Mengle would have fallen under this category. However, I doubt somewhat that they exist in a pure form (i.e the characters in de Sade are pure in this way, but I wonder if suchlike could exist in reality)
But I focus on the second group. Why revenge?
Thank you Adam, I need to think this through.
Darling! I agree completely.
I've done so. The woman has proven herself untrustworthy,
How so?
Given.
How so?
She is a liar and a fraud. The guy, on the other hand, demonstrates that although the law limits his access to the child, he wishes to do something to help her along the way. A purely selfless act, as he would not be gaining any money from it.
He'd be gaining revenge on the woman who made him "father" another man's child. His actions are in no way selfless.
Indeed, by impoverishing the mother, he is harming the child. I could bring up statistics showing this, but I'm rushed and my head still hurts:
http://www.google.com/search?q=mate...lopmen&sourceid=opera&num=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
I doubt very much that his actions will help the child. If he wishes to support the kid's college education, he could establish a trust fund, rather than impoverishing the child's circumstances now.
The most humiliating thing I experienced (save arrest) was going with my mother while she requested financial assistance from a certain charity. I cannot see ever inflicting that on an innocent child, no matter how much the mother offended me.
He is a selfish prick who ought to be taken outside and shot.
P.S: Your site mentions murder in passing. There is no mention of any specific case. Given the wrath Donatain provoked, I doubt very much that a case of murder would have gone unpunished.
Also, they make the obvious error (fuck. why am I talking like a fucking Harvard intellectual? It's a dumb mistake, not an obvious error) of connecting Donatain to sadomasochism - betraying a most grotesque ignorence of his works.