re: #211 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge

As I’ve said before, without a code duello, it’s not an armed “society”, it’s just a bunch of goobers with guns shooting each other.

“Honor” and other social mores that supposedly confine retaliatory violence tend to…not do that. Because everybody knows the rules, but then applies the “but this time, it’s different” and “we have to respond or seem weak.” What starts as individual fights become feuds, grudges mount over time, and violence occurs in flares that outpace the slow process of bringing together authority figures to compromise.

Basically, Romeo and Juliet. Or the Hatfield/McCoy mess. Or your average month in the tribal regions of Pakistan.