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One aspect of moral development is reducing the maximum of the punishment allowed in your world view. E.g. if slow torture of someone’s entire family feels like an acceptable punishment for some acts, then your moral development is very immature.

It’s immature rather than perverse b/c it’s something a young child might imagine. Storytellers too. Maturity embraces the previous states. It doesn’t condemn them.

One of the responsibilities of leadership is to pass punishments of the right magnitude so that evil doesn’t fester or spiral out of control. It’s not for the faint of heart.

A bad leader punishes wildly. Even if you agree with the ideal, if the punishment role is performed like that of a wild animal, it’s difficult to follow.

Punishing randomly (out of cluelessness) or not punishing at all are also degenerate behaviors. Evil, and resulting Punisher/Vigilante behavior grows in the shadows.

To “keep your house in order” means that the aspects of your inner life should be filled with light before you try to increase your territory by fighting more wars.

If your light is weak, your kingdom of consciousness is full of shadows and hyenas gnawing at your soul.

The issue with most Sacred Flames is that they’re static. They give off great light but also long shadows the brighter they are. These shadows never see light just as we never see the dark side of the moon.