Edwardian era synthesis p1 t1

Justin Park Jenny yu Ashley Chang Diana Kim

Prior to the Edwardian era, indiscriminate punishment as a righteous retribution was accepted. However, during the Edwardian era, social and economic changes shifted European countries. Socialism which focused on the lower class promoted equality in the society and also Protectionism intended to create fair competition between states. Thus, the rise of these two “isms” brought more equality between people and indiscriminate punishment was not accepted as much as it was used to be.

During the Edwardian era, both World War 1 and World War 2 occurred which made people question the standard of violence of being immoral or amoral. Violence as retribution is immoral as Ghandi said “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. If all people used violence as retribution, there would be so much harm in the society and everybody would end up with devastating results. Thus, violence as retribution is immoral. War is also immoral because citizens started to be proud of war. Due to patriotic citizens, rather than killing the other country for a purpose, citizens thought their actions were justified because they were doing it for their country. For example, after the 9/11 attack, 3000 Americans were killed and patriotic citizens of America were extremely mad at Iraq and Afghanistan. Thus, the United States without a clear purpose started to attack Iraq and Afghanistan. A movie “Old Boy” shows the justification of violence as righteous retribution. The main character becomes kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years for no reason. After coming out he tries to find who has imprisoned him and during that process, he kills everyone who gets in his way. He justifies his murders thinking that it is for his retribution.