To combat rampant political corruption, some Russians are proposing to go Old School...scratch that...go Medieval on the crooked SOB's. They would like to BRAND the hands of politicians caught doing dirt deeds.
Sounds good to me, although I would gladly settle for tar and feathers. I'll bet billions of dollars of unaccounted for public money would suddenly re-appear, maybe even enough to pay off the national debt.
Over here we had a fine old tradition of horsewhiping which has strangely disappeared.
ReplyDelete‘It comes to this – either you are a liar or my daughter – I believe you are’ and struck Baker ‘thirty or forty’ blows with ‘a thick riding whip’ (horsewhipping being the traditional expression of anger and contempt) while calling Baker ‘scoundrel, liar’ repeatedly." (Australian Journal of Legal History 2005) Vol 9)
There is some anecdotal evidence of tarring and feathering, but the 'ridden out of town on a rail' seems sadly missing. You guys seem to come up with great unique touches.
Branding and horsewhips would in this age tend to incur the wrath of the leftist trendies, ACLU, and such like while they would really have no reason to object to coating the subject in natural products and assisting him on his way.
Rather than the more singular nature of branding and horsewhipping, tarring etc, offers the opportunity for more widespread participation by the local population. In this way it creates a great sense of community among the participants and could be coordinated with a fete to raise funds for local charities, schools, churches and so on.
I'm all for it.