@ gotlucky
Its because of a few reasons, I think that violence is best considered as a type of surgery. You want to do the least amount of damage possible, and preserve as much life as you can. Humans are violent creatures. The Bible teaches that we all have a fallen nature, and we know from our studies of evolution that violent behavior was selected for. Humans are prone to violence, and I think that urge needs to be channeled. If people cannot settle disputes violently and orderly, they will settle them violently and disorderly. The cycle of retributive violence is a kind of monster that consumes wealth, lives, generations of families, and most importantly human happiness. Dueling, in its best examples, is kind of like surgery. Many times a disabling wound was sufficient to settle the dispute. There are a lot of examples of both principles dying, or the partisans engaging in open battle, like anything else, dueling is not some magic cure. I just think it provides a sort of pressure valve when two individuals have a dispute that will not permit nonviolent resolution, there is a means to resolve it with the absolute minimum of bloodshed.
I think a few parallel cases are the phenomena that people who practice martial arts are generally more peaceful than people who dont, people who carry weapons are more polite and less confrontational than people who do not, and veterans are always coming back and turning anti-war. There are beneficial and detrimental ways for humans to express violent urges, “animal spirits” harhar
there are professional concerns here as well. Robert Heinlen observed in Starship Troopers through one of the nco’s that the job of infantry is to be selective with violence. Anyone can launch massive amounts of explosives in a specific direction. Only properly trained and equipped infantry (with the right support) can enter a town, locate and capture or kill all redheaded left-handed females, and extract. And the current state-of-the-art in infantry tactics is to treat all attacks as crimes, and forensically locate the individuals responsible. Not that any units are or are not employing state-of-the-art tactics, I wouldnt know.
unfortunately one of the man problems with current human society is that we dont have a rite of passage that is common to our culture. The military fills this gap all too well, and if we reinstituted dueling, I think we might see the return of the swashbucklers.
yes, the mutual consent does make it ethical, although I cant say that it would or would not be moral. Hmmmmmmmm