Metaphysically Enforced Nonviolence

Had an odd thought today.

(cue Rod Serling voiceover)

Imagine a world where nonviolence is enforced – metaphysically. On a twenty-four hour delay system. That is, you punch someone in the nose, twenty-four hours later you yourself feel the pain in the center of your face. A criminal intentionally shoots and kills a man … and dies the same way, by some mysterious phantom bullet, exactly one day later. Whenever you inflict some type of bodily pain on someone in the mindset of wanting to do such a thing, you’ll feel the exact same pain, to the exact same extent, up to and including death, twenty-four hours later.

How will this metaphysically enforced nonviolence change the world?

Let’s watch, shall we, as we enter …

… the Hopper Zone.

(end voiceover, began theme music, etc)

Strangely enough, not once in my musings did I think this to be a good thing. Oh, sure, I suppose, in the short run (i.e., the first forty-eight to seventy-two hours or so, after a brief and brutally steep learning curve), it’d be good. Deaths from violence would shrink exponentially to zero in probably a week. Hospitals would have to lay off doctors and nurses in that same time, too, as demand for their services would drop rapidly. A good thing, right?

Then I got to thinking.

Ultimately, every law in this country is enforced by a gun. Right? Refuse to pay your taxes and you’ll be sentenced to a prison term. Refuse to go to prison and the Man will send an armed escort out to ensure your cooperation. Fail to cooperate, and – well, you know.

But what if violence was metaphysically prohibited?

How would laws be enforced?

By “shunning,” I guess, like they do in some religions like the Jehovah’s Witnesses or in some ancient cultures, such as what was done to those afflicted with leprosy. Would this be, ultimately, a “better” or a “worse” way to establish a baseline to running the world? Hmmm. Sounds like a major plot point for a future novel.

Also, how would someone channel his anger if the option to lash out and hurt someone is forbidden under potential pain of death? I can envision some weird mind meld thing that develops over time to soak up the psychic detritus that the vice anger produces in far too many of us. That, or we evolve into a society of meditating Zen Buddhists by Christmas.

And I have no doubt, being the fallen creatures that we are, an extensive program of experimentation would commence. For example, would I experience pain if I paid someone else to punch you in the nose? Would the puncher? Would both of us? How about if I created some sort of computer that randomly chose a “victim” by lot to slug? What if I was hypnotized to punch you? Would I feel pain? Would the hypnotist? What if – what if – what if?

Well, it’d turn out that we can’t elude the Metaphysic Nonviolence Enforcer, try as we might. And we will try.

Just some random musings as I punch numbers in and out of spreadsheets all day.