Interesting thread IWD....and I hope this exchange goes back and forth for a while.With that being said, I have a very busy day ahead of me, so my initial answer may be somewhat brief and very vague talking in broad terms....so any followup from me will have to wait until later on this evening depending on the way the day plays out.
Forgiveness and mercy, huh? I don't know if you remember a thread waaayyyyy back, I think it was on Totse, discussed the whole concept of "accepting an apology". On that topic, I explained how my belief is the majority of apologies are empty, cheap and shallow. It literally takes NOTHING to spew some vanilla words, and unless there is genuine repentance/repayment...it means absolutely nothing to me. What I especially don't like about apologies, is how so many people flip the script, they now expect the person that was wronged/harmed to suddenly bear the burden of the responsibility of the indiscretion..."well, he apologized to you, now you SHOULD forgive him". As if forgiveness is NOT given, somehow now the person that has been wronged is now "bad"...and all the sins of the instigator is suddenly washed away.
As for "mercy"....that all depends on the depth of the error, and the punishment of the accused. I admit, I have a very dark outlook on a lot of things in this world...and my idea of "punishment" can be a lot more severe than most others. We are living in a backwards world any more, and people that think it is their "right" to put their nose in other people's business, or even have the world change all for their selfish needs and agendas to me deserve little to no mercy. Even moreso with people that do bad things with malice in their hearts, but even folks that think their selfish agendas trump everyone else's.
An example of that would be the most recent busybody soccer mom that got a petition together to have Breaking Bad action figures pulled off the shelves of Toys R Us in Florida because of her OWN sensibilities that were offended. Somehow in this entitled, selfish, thin-skinned cunt's mind....she really believes her value system and morality(?) should mandate how everyone else goes about their lives and makes purchasing decisions. With ALL the problems in this world, from death, wars, sickness, unemployment, and everything else......THIS is a soapbox she is getting so crazy about, all the while trying to dictate what other people do with their dollars and choices in this world? In essence, she is stepping on the world's toes...and I hate people like that, whether they are literally stepping on toes or figuratively.
And hear me when I say this....this is not false bravado, talking shit, or anything else to amuse someone. In my heart of hearts I firmly believe if there was ANY justice in this world.......someday not very far off I hope this woman is either beaten and robbed by a tweaked out meth head, or hit by a Toys R Us tractor trailer. It's truly what she "deserves" in my opinion, when she had the selfish audacity to think her sensibilities could dictate the rest of the world's value system.
Again, just a very quick and bare bones concept of how my mind works in regard to that, and I realize I didn't touch on any of Zok's sins and incompetency yet.....but obviously I do believe that he too deserves to suffer greatly for his idiocy and incompetency in this world. He stepped on a lot of toes, fucked with a lot of people, and even purposely brought harm to many with his cowardice, hypocrisy and selfishness.
Eager to hear more from you, as well as any followup questions you might have....