A tooth for a tooth
...justice for a utopian society
Utopia is supposed to be the perfect society to live in, right? One where supposedly there is a total lack of any crime.
How could that be achieved?
Maybe we should look back in time for the answer, a time when old crones used to cackle "An eye for an eye", from a time when that was the only law. The perfect law!?
Maybe this example will provide an argument in its favour -
Imagine this little guy broke in to your house and stole your laptop valued at $3,000 and got caught, only after he'd fenced your kit and snorted the money.
Instead of going to court and being charged for breaking a litany of laws and statutes, possibly fined, jailed, both, neither, and possibly pay you $3,000 if he was unlucky and you were incredibly lucky.
Instead how about applying the little magic law?
This time like for like and like it or not, you get to break into his house by whatever means you choose
(I'd choose teasing a 30 mph big truck delicately through the small ground floor bathroom window),
and at a time that suited you best, maybe when he's making use of the ground floor bathroom.
Once you've entered, brushing things aside with a swinging golf club you can locate his laptop and take it away as yours, wipe all his photos, files, applications etc and use it as yours.
However, under the law you are entitled to like for like. Simply return for more of his possessions to sell on e-bay if his laptop fails to match the value of yours.
There, all happy now.
If extrapolated to other criminal actions, would this law achieve and maintain a utopian society?