Vladimir_M comments on Rationality quotes: October 2010 - LessWrong

4 Post author: Morendil 05 October 2010 11:38AM

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Comment author: Vladimir_M 21 October 2010 02:24:53AM *  5 points [-]

That's like saying that in modern-day U.S., the culture is "totally casual about people killing each other, any social class, no reason necessary," and justifying that by linking to a web page discussing the penalties for murder in present-day American law.

As that Wikipedia page will tell you, wergeld was a legal penalty for killing imposed on the guilty person. Today, punishing murder with fines sounds unusual (though perhaps not so much when you consider that wrongful death torts still exist), and this is indeed a sign of significant cultural change, but the idea that killing people was seen as an OK casual thing to do among the old Germanics, or any other historical people, is just ludicrous.